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Sacramento Chamber of Commerce 

The State Capitol at Sacramento 






CALIFORNIA 

A LITTLE HISTORY OF A BIG STATE 


BY 




ROCKWELL D. HUNT 

// 

Dean of the Graduate School 
University of Southern California 
Author of California the Golden 



D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 

ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS 

LONDON 




F<U i 

Mu 


Copyright, 1931, 

By Rockwell D. Hunt 


No part of the material covered by this 
copyright may be reproduced in any form 
without written permission of the publisher. 

3 r 1 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

©CIA 39311 


JUL -1 '531 



&S r.?Y <° 



TO MY GRANDDAUGHTERS 

IMOGEN DOROTHY-MAY HUNT 
AND 

PAULA THERESA HUNT 
NATIVE DAUGHTERS OF CALIFORNIA 

THIS BOOK IS 


AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 





PREFACE 


This book has been prepared primarily for children. It is well 
known that there are already available a number of children’s books 
dealing with certain phases of California life and history, such as 
stories of the Indians, great explorers and discoverers, the Missions, 
and the Gold Days. But so far as the present author is aware, there 
is no single volume, at once authoritative and simple enough to 
meet the requirements of a little child, sufficiently comprehensive 
to be available as a first general textbook in California history. It 
is the present purpose to provide such a book, which, while nar¬ 
rating the salient features in the long course of history, attempts to 
preserve a just sense of proportion, to present a picture with a true 
perspective of background and foreground. 

That the fascinating history of California is a proper subject of 
study for even the very young school children of the state has come 
to be regarded as axiomatic. Alert teachers have come to recognize 
this as never before. The significance of the truth is heightened, 
however, when it is remembered that there is a constant influx of 
families into California from remote centers, and that among this 
ever-increasing population there is an almost total ignorance of the 
charm of the Arcadian days and of the successive episodes of our 
romantic and fruitful history. 

The prepared teacher will encourage the child to become alert — 
for example, by asking for other paragraph headings than those 
used, and by stimulating questions whose answers may not be found 
in this book. There should be full opportunity for free expression 
by the child. The effectiveness of the book may be increased by 
actual participation on the part of the children in appropriate 
exercises, by the frequent use of selected pictures, as well as of 
models and other illustrative materials. An excursion to some old 
mission, or plaza, or prominent landmark, or a visit to a near-by 
museum of history, or an exhibition of simple pageantry on an 
anniversary occasion will prove of great interest and permanent 
value. 

No apology is offered for the omission in the book, itself, of the 

v 


VI 


PREFACE 

end-of-the-chapter questions and exercises typical of the usual 
textbook. It is felt that the young reader will find the story of 
California more attractive without these pedagogical appendages, 
and for that matter, that any competent teacher can readily 
provoke from her pupils all the suggestive questions, exercises, and 
discussions that may be needed for classroom use. 

It is quite obvious that there are certain episodes in California 
history which it would be inappropriate or impossible to present in 
a manner suited to the minds of young children. However, these 
are not of sufficient historical importance to cause their omission 
seriously to mar the truth or perspective of the picture as a whole 
as it is here presented. 

Here and there it has been found advisable to include a few 
technical terms — this also by design. The meaning of such terms 
is usually made clear by the descriptive matter of the context; 
when mastered, these terms form interesting additions to the child’s 
vocabulary and are to be accounted valuable acquisitions. 

It is hoped that the use of this little book, coupled with the influ¬ 
ence of the prepared and sympathetic teacher, will contribute 
toward making the children of the schools proud of the fact that 
they are Californians. And, though written in a style of the utmost 
simplicity and intended primarily for the little folks, the further 
hope is indulged that it may not be devoid of interest to children of 
older years — even, perhaps, to those beyond the borders of the 
Golden State. 

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mary Belle Murray, 
Supervisor of California History in the elementary schools of Los 
Angeles, for invaluable assistance in suiting this book to the needs 
of the children and for her constant and unfailing interest during 
the course of its preparation. The author also desires to acknowl¬ 
edge his special indebtedness to Mr. Robert H. Lane, Assistant 
Superintendent of Schools, Los Angeles for reading and criticising 
the manuscript and offering most helpful encouragement. Thanks 
are also due to Mr. Laurance L. Hill of the Security-First National 
Bank of Los Angeles, to the Chambers of Commerce of Los Angeles, 
Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Pasadena, and San Jose, and 
to the Los Angeles Museum for the use of selected photographs for 
purposes of illustration. To all the kind friends who by word of 
encouragement or spirit of cooperation have contributed to the 
preparation of this little book the author makes grateful acknowl¬ 
edgment. 

Rockwell D. Hunt 


CONTENTS 


PART I 

chapter BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME page 

I. The Indians. 1 

II. Mountains and Valleys, Rivers and Ocean. . 12 

III. Nature’s Great Gifts . 15 

PART II 

EARLY DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

IV. From Columbus to Cabrillo . 20 

V. Some Famous Voyages: Searching for a 

Strait . 24 

PART III 

SPANIARDS MAKE CALIFORNIA THEIR HOME 

VI. Father Junipero Serra and the Missions . . 31 

VII. The Presidios and the Pueblos . 40 

VIII. How People Lived in Old California .... 44 

PART IV 

CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

IX. The Coming of Strangers. 52 

X. The Stars and Stripes in California. 64 

XI. The Sad Story of the Donner Party .... 72 

PART V 

GOLD DAYS 

XII. The Story of Gold in California . 77 

XIII. William Lewis Manly, a Hero of Death Val¬ 

ley . 89 

XIV. Life in Early San Francisco. 93 

vii 












CONTENTS 


viii 

PART VI 

chapter ALL ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA page 

XV. Covered Wagon, Clipper Ship, and Steamboat . . 97 

XVI. The Overland Stagecoach and the Pony Ex- 

IOS 

PRESS. 1UO 

XVII. The Coming of the Iron Horse.108 

PART VII 

THE GOLDEN STATE 

XVIII. Some California Cities.HI 

XIX. How California Helps to Feed the Nation . 133 

XX. Caring for the Future.138 

XXL What Makes California Great.• 143 






PART I: BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 


CHAPTER I 
THE INDIANS 

The first people who lived in California were Indians. 

For long ages before the time when the white men 
came, many thousands of them lived in the valleys and 
on the hills of California. In some ways these were like 
the Indians of the East in their looks and in the way 
they lived, but in other ways they were very different 
from the red men of the East as well as from the Aztecs 
of Mexico. You will surely wish to know more about 
them. 

How They Looked. — Most of the California Indians 
were short and heavy, but some of the mountain tribes 
were tall and fine looking. There was a chief named 
Solano who was said to be more than six and a half feet 
tall. 

Some tribes were of rather light color, others were of a 
dark color, and there was every shade of color in between. 
Those that lived near the seaside or in the open sunshine 
had very dark skin — some of them almost black, while 
those that lived in the forest or other places away from 
the direct sunshine were much lighter. But all had 
straight black hair, and men as well as women wore their 

1 


2 BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 

hair long. They had small dark-brown eyes, and their 
cheek bones looked a good deal like those of the 
Chinese. 

Their Clothing. — In the warm valleys the Indians wore 
very little clothing. During the summer months there 
was little need for clothing. In cold weather the chil¬ 
dren sometimes wore rabbit-skin or deerskin cloaks, 
and the women wore short skirts made of grass or bul¬ 
rushes called tules. But they were fond of pretty things; 
so they had bright feathers from birds, and beads made 
from shells for their odd-looking headdresses and belts. 
Some of the tribes trimmed their clothes with the beaks of 
certain kinds of birds, or teeth of animals, or shining 
pieces of shell. When the men could find porcupines, 
they used their quills in making designs on the skirts. 
Some of the Indians wore bowl shaped hats that looked 
like small baskets, and most of them painted queer pat¬ 
terns on their faces and bodies. They thought this made 
them better looking. 

Their Food. — Nature was very good to the Indians in 
California, for they could find many kinds of food with¬ 
out much work. And if they had enough to eat, they did 
not see why they should work. Most of their food was 
vegetable of some kind, such as leaves, roots, twigs from 
trees, many kinds of seeds, nuts, and berries. Acorns 
were used a great deal. These were first dried, then 
pounded or ground up in a stone mortar into coarse 
meal, soaked for a long time in the sand to take away 
the bitter taste, then made into a sort of coarse bread. 
Pine nuts were a favorite food. A good deal of wild 


THE INDIANS 3 

clover was eaten in the spring time, and different kinds 
of greens. 

The Indians liked meat and fish, too; but these were 
not usually so easy to get. Mussels and clams were 
plentiful along the seacoast. Some huge mounds of 
shells have been found that tell us how fond the Indians 
were of shellfish many, many years ago. They caught 
different kinds of fish with hooks and snares. They also 
used spears and nets. Salmon they were always glad to 
have. 

Grasshoppers were dried and eaten, and when they 
found some young yellow-jackets they had a real treat. 
Then we must not forget gophers, lizards, snakes, mice, 
cottontails, squirrels, ducks, geese, and a hundred other 
kinds of animals and insects. Nearly every living thing 
they could lay their hands on was used for food. Large 
game, like the deer and the antelope, was caught in traps 
or snares more often than it was hunted with bows and 
arrows. They did not care to bother the grizzly bear. 
When hunting, the Indians showed great patience, and 
they never seemed to be in a hurry. 

The Indians at Home. — Most of the Indians had their 
simple homes in queer little houses called wikiups, made 
of long willow poles driven into the ground, with the 
upper ends drawn together and tied with tough thongs. 
These huts were covered with grass and earth, and they 
looked much like big bowls turned upside down. Many of 
these huts taken together with the people living in them 
formed a village, and this was called a rancheria. In 
each village was to be found one large assembly room, 



An Indian Village 












THE INDIANS 5 

which was called the temescal , or sweat house. In this 
room the Indians had their tribe meetings; it was also 
used as a sort of hospital, and as a room for village 
dances. After dancing for hours the Indians would 
dash outside and jump into the cold water of the 
creek. 

The Indian mother had plenty of hard work to do. 
She was often kept busy from sunrise till dark. It was 
she who gathered the wood and brush for the fire and 
prepared the food, dressed the deer and squirrel skins, 
wove the beautiful baskets, and did whatever her hus¬ 
band asked her to do. The women spent much time in 
pounding and grinding the acorns or grain in the stone 
mortar with the heavy pestle, or pounder, until the meal 
was fine enough to be made up into cakes. Have you 
ever seen one of these Indian mortars? 

How the Indians Played. — The Indians of California 
were simple folks, but they had happy times. They 
were very fond of dancing. Of course they had war 
dances, but they also had peace dances. They danced 
when another tribe came to visit them, and they danced 
when they had their winter’s supply of acorns, nuts, and 
berries all ready to store away. The children did not 
have many toys, but you may be sure the boys had fun 
learning to use their little bows and arrows, and learning 
to swim, as they did when they were little children. Even 
if their games were simple, the Indian boys and girls 
loved to play, just as other children do. 

And these people sang a great deal. I am afraid you 
wouldn’t understand much of their singing — you might 


6 BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 

not call it singing at all — but in their own strange way 
they sometimes sang all night long so loudly that it was 
very hard for anybody to sleep. 

Indian Legends. — The Indians had many stories 
about the earth they lived in, about how they were made, 
and about the great spirit world. The most important' 
bird was the eagle, and the wisest animal was the coyote. 
They tried to explain the thunder and lightning, how the 
first light came, how fire was made, and how the world 
itself was created. Nature was the Indian’s God. 

You will learn more of what happened to the Indians 
after white men came, and why there are not so many 
Indians in California now as there were in the long ago. 
But it is pleasant now to remember that some of our 
pretty names are really Indian names. I know you must 
have heard of Colusa, and Modoc, and Shasta, and Mono, 
and Suisun, and of other Indian names. 

Before the whites came to California, the Indians did 
not know how to read or write; they had never heard of 
such things. But like other Indians they had many 
old customs and legends that the older ones taught to 
their children. 

These stories about spirits, about the wonderful things 
animals and birds could do, and about the powers of the 
sun and the moon, seem very strange to us. None of 
them is more strange than the legend of El Dorado, and 
everybody knows that the name El Dorado has something 
to do with gold. 

The Legend of El Dorado. — From the very first, Cal¬ 
ifornia was thought of as a land of gold. The first time 


THE INDIANS 


7 


that the word California was printed in a book, years 
before Cortes conquered Mexico, it was given as the 
name of a magic island, where gold was the only metal, 
and where there was plenty of it all about. 

El Dorado was really not the name of a country or a 
state at all, but of a man, and it means “the gold-covered 
one.” Many tribes of Indians had their own stories of 
El Dorado, the Golden; he was supposed to come from 
an island somewhere in the East. We have read about 
an Indian prince, called El Dorado, who lived in Colom¬ 
bia, which is in South America. Once a year his body was 
covered with oil; then small bits of gold were sprinkled 
all over him, and he was taken out in a boat to the middle 
of the lake, where he would dive into the water and wash 
the gold off his body as a gift to the god of lakes and 
rivers. At the same time the people on the shore would 
throw small pieces of gold into the lake. El Dorado 
seemed to be the sun god of Indian tribes in South Amer¬ 
ica and North America alike. He taught the people to 
be kind to everybody. 

El Dorado was often thought of as a white man, and 
that helps to explain why the Indians were at first so 
friendly to Cortes and other Spanish leaders, who 
seemed like gods to them. When the missionaries 
pointed upward to the sky in teaching the Indians about 
the Heavenly Father, the Indians were sure to think of 
El Dorado, the spirit of the Golden Heart. 

The Legend of the Creation of Earth. — In the begin¬ 
ning — so the story goes — darkness was everywhere, 
like a great black ball without any light in it. Earth 


8 


BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 


Doctor flew back and forth over this many times, until 
he decided to make a resting place for himself. He took 
a little dust and made it into a flat cake, and while he 
danced on the cake he sang a magic song. 

Then Earth Doctor made some ants, and one of these 
made the cake larger and larger until it was as large as 
the earth is now. Next he made a cover to fit over it, 
shaped round like an Indian house. That was the sky. 
The edges of the earth and the sky were fastened tightly 
together. 

Earth Doctor made water, mountains, grass, and trees, 
as we see them now. But still everything was black. So 
he poured water into a dish, and when it became ice he 
threw it far to the north. It began to shine very brightly 
— and that was the sun. He threw another ball of ice 
far to the north. That began to shine, also, but not so 
brightly. It was the moon. 

It was still dark when sun and moon were not in the 
sky. So Earth Doctor blew water from his mouth like a 
spray, and made little stars. Then he drew his staff 
across the sky and made the Milky Way. 

So it was that the Pima Indians thought Earth Doctor 
created the earth and sky, the sun and moon, and all the 
stars. 

The Legend of the Creation of Man. — Coyote wished 
to create man; so he called all the animals together to 
get their advice. 

Lion wished man to have a roaring voice, so that he 
could frighten other animals, and to have sharp teeth 
and claws. Grizzly Bear said man should be very strong, 


THE INDIANS 


9 


but should not make a great noise. Deer thought man 
should have beautiful horns, “ears like a spider’s web, 
and eyes like fire.” 

But Coyote said the animals were foolish, because 
each of them wanted man to be like himself. Man might 
have a roaring voice and great strength, keen eyes and 
good ears, but he should be as wise as Coyote. 

All the animals set to work to make man out of lumps 
of earth, each one like himself. They kept on working 
till they fell asleep. But Coyote stayed awake, working 
all night. He spoiled the work of all the others by throw¬ 
ing water upon it while they were asleep, and in the 
morning he gave life to his own model. 

In this way the Indians of San Joaquin Valley thought 
Coyote created man. 

The Legend of the Golden Gate. — There was a time 
in the long ago when there were no people in California; 
but there were two spirits, one evil, the other good. The 
good one overcame the evil. 

The whole country was covered with water, except 
Mount Diablo and Reed’s Peak, which are not far from 
San Francisco Bay. On the peak was a coyote, living 
alone. One day Coyote saw a feather floating on the 
water, which turned into an eagle when it touched 
the land. Then away it flew to the mountain. 

Coyote and Eagle visited each other and lived in peace 
together. One time, after talking awhile, they decided 
they would make Indians. They did so; and as there 
came to be more and more Indians, the waters of the lake 
got lower and lower, and there was much dry land. At 



•S 

£ 


The Golden Gate of San Francisco 



























THE INDIANS 


11 


that time there was no Golden Gate, but a chain of 
mountains stood across the place. All at once came an 
earthquake so great that it split the chain of mountains, 
and it was then that the Golden Gate was formed. The 
rivers flowed into the bay, and the waters of the bay and 
of the ocean came together. 

After that it was not long till the “palefaces” found 
their way into the Indians’ country; and then the In¬ 
dians became fewer and fewer, as they “passed silently 
away from the land of the coyote and the eagle.” 

This legend of the Golden Gate was told by one of the 
early pioneers. 


CHAPTER II 


MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS, RIVERS 
AND OCEAN 

The Map of California. — California is a very large 
state. There is only one state in the whole country that 
is larger, and that is Texas. Just across the northern 
boundary is the state of Oregon. On the east stands 
Nevada, and to the south is Mexico. Looking west, 
California faces the Pacific Ocean. 

If you will look at the map you will see two mountain 
ranges running almost the whole length of the state, and 
between these you will see the great central valley. On 
the eastern side are the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and 
along the western slope, close to the ocean, are the Coast 
Range Mountains. A little more than halfway down in 
the Sierra Nevada stands Mount Whitney, which is the 
highest point in the United States, outside of Alaska. 
It is more than 14,500 feet high. 

Look again at the map and notice two large rivers, 
each of them having many branches, coming out of the 
mountains. The northern river is the Sacramento, 
which flows toward the south; the southern river is the 
San Joaquin, which flows toward the north. After mak¬ 
ing a great many bends, and winding around in what 
seems a strange manner, they flow together in the low 
lands called the delta, forming many islands with rich 
12 


MOUNTAINS, VALLEYS, RIVERS AND OCEAN 13 

soil. Then they empty their waters into the San Fran¬ 
cisco Bay, and at last the Golden Gate lets them both 
out into the Pacific Ocean. The central valley has the 
same names as the rivers. The upper part is called the 
Sacramento Valley, and the lower part is called the San 
Joaquin Valley. There is enough rich land in this valley 
to produce grain and fruit for millions of people. 

Besides the two great mountain ranges and the two 
large rivers there are other mountains and a great many 
streams of water. And besides the great central valley 
many other valleys are found in California. It is this 
wide variety of mountains and valleys, with their streams 
and lakes and waterfalls, that helps to make California so 
famous. 

The Fine Climate. — r But the climate also adds to the 
fame of the Golden State. Where most of the people 
live, the climate is mild, neither too hot in the summer nor 
too cold in the winter, without heavy snowstorms, and 
with but little thunder and lightning. But you can find 
every variety of climate somewhere in California. In an 
automobile ride over our good roads from the central 
valley to the mountain heights you may pass in only a 
few hours from the tropical heat of a summer day to 
what seems the frozen arctic region of everlasting snow. 

It very seldom rains during the summer, except in the 
mountains. In many places the rainfall is not heavy 
enough to produce good crops. But the rain and snow 
in the mountains provide water for irrigating the dry 
regions. 

To understand the many different kinds of climate and 


14 


BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 



Yacht Harbor and Beach at Santa Barbara 

the heavy rainfall in some places and the drought in 
other places, we must think of the great mountain walls 
with their forests and their snow-covered peaks, of the 
winds, and of the ocean; for it is the greatest body of 
water in the whole world, the Pacific Ocean, that forms 
the western boundary of California. 

The coast line, with all its bays, like San Francisco 
and Monterey, its many points jutting out into the ocean, 
and its other windings, is about one thousand miles long. 
There are now many seaside towns and cities. During 
the summer months, when it is quite warm in the central 
valley, these seaside towns and cities are visited by thou¬ 
sands and thousands of persons for a vacation at the beach. 




CHAPTER III 


NATURE’S GREAT GIFTS 

Wild Flowers. — Nowhere in the world are there more 
beautiful wild flowers than in California. And there are 
hundreds of different kinds of them. They were seen 
by the very earliest pioneers. John Bid well, who came a 
long time before gold was discovered, said the flowers 
“paint the face of nature with a thousand colors.” 

The Golden Poppy is known as the State Flower. It 
grows in all parts of the state, and everybody loves it. 
This bright flower is like the sunlight; it seems to reflect 
the warm sunshine of California. It has another name, 
also; it is called the Cup of Gold. No wonder people 
love the Golden Poppy. 

Every spring thousands of acres are covered with a 
carpet of lupine and buttercups. People go many miles 
to see the bright butterfly tulips and the fragrant wild 
lilac. Every boy and girl should know the larkspur, the 
Indian paintbrush, and the baby-blue-eyes. And what 
can be more beautiful than the ferns of many kinds that 
grow in the shady places of the California mountains? 

Birds and Animals. — California was the home of a 
great many kinds of wild birds and animals, both little 
ones and big ones. You can have no idea how many wild 
geese and ducks there were before white men came to 
hunt them. One of the largest game birds is the graceful 
15 


16 


BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 



Desert Flowers 

white swan. The condor was a great bird of pure black 
that looked like a huge buzzard: most people have never 
seen one of these. Sometimes the tiny humming bird is 
found far up in the mountain heights. But Californians 
are most proud of the golden eagle, as the real American 
bird. The meadow lark is a favorite bird in all parts of 
the state, and the call of the quail is a pleasant and wel¬ 
come sound. 

Some of the largest animals were the deer, the elk, the 
mountain lion, and different kinds of bears. The power¬ 
ful grizzly bear was supposed to be like California it¬ 
self: so we have a state flag with the picture of a big 



NATURE’S GREAT GIFTS 


17 


grizzly bear on it. And we must not forget that many 
kinds of fish were found in the mountain brooks, the 
rivers and lakes, the bays, and the ocean. The Indians 
used to eat fish long before the white men came. What a 
paradise California must have been for the hunter and 
the fisherman in the early days! 

Giant Trees. — John Muir was a student of nature 
who has written interesting stories of the out-of-doors. 
He has told us that the cone-bearing forests of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains are the grandest and most beautiful 
in the world. “The giant pines, and firs, and Sequoias 
held their arms open to the sunlight, rising above one 
another in the mountain benches.” 

Of all the many kinds of trees in California the most 
wonderful are the Big Trees, called Sequoias. There is 
one named “General Sherman” that is the largest and 
oldest living thing in the whole world. In the Coast 
Range Mountains are found the Redwoods, trees which 
are cousins of the Big Trees, and which are also very 
large as well as very beautiful. One of the Redwoods is 
said to be the tallest tree in the world. To keep the Big 
Trees from being cut down and sawed up into lumber we 
now have three great parks; these are Sequoia National 
Park, General Grant National Park, and Yosemite 
National Park. The map shows you where these parks 
are located. 

Yosemite Valley. — Yosemite is so wonderful that 
everybody wants to see it. It has become famous in 
many countries. Who has not heard of El Capitan, and 
Glacier Point, and Bridal Veil Falls? How well do I 


18 


BEFORE THE WHITE MAN CAME 



In the Yosemite Valley 

remember the day when I climbed to the very top of old 
South Dome and had one of the grandest views to be had 
anywhere in the world! 

It used to be very hard to get into Yosemite Valley, 
but now the roads are good, and more and more people 
are happy to visit it every year. It is grand in the winter 
time, with snow everywhere; but nothing is more lovely 
than its waterfalls in the early summer. 

Lake Tahoe. — Of all the countless lakes in the moun¬ 
tains and valleys of California, the most famous is beau¬ 
tiful Lake Tahoe, which is in the Sierra Nevada, on the 
eastern border of the state. Thousands of tourists from 
all over the world go to see this lake every summer. Who 



NATURE’S GREAT GIFTS 


19 


would not take delight in a boat ride on its deep blue 
waters, clear as crystal? No wonder that its fame has 
spread throughout the earth. 

The Seashore. — Besides the mountains and the val¬ 
leys of California, with their trees and parks, rivers and 
lakes, we must not forget the long seashore. Here Nature 
has given us many playgrounds of great variety, and 
people come from far and near to enjoy them. Miles of 
ocean front are open to rich and poor alike. Many 
beautiful towns are found along the beach. The bracing 
air, the ebb and flow of the tides, and the booming of the 
breakers make a change that is most welcome to those 
who leave the heated valleys in summer time for a 
vacation at the seaside. Surely the big ocean is one of 
Nature’s best gifts. 

But I cannot stop now to tell you about all the gold 
and silver, the fruit and grain, the oil and other things 
that come from California. The oil is sometimes called 
“black gold,” because it is worth so much to the people. 
The gasoline that we use in automobiles and airplanes 
comes from the oil. We do not know how we could get 
along without it now. 

When we think of the wild flowers, the birds and 
animals, the great forests with their giant trees, the 
beautiful valleys and grand mountains, and then the 
long seashore, with all the good things that come to us 
every day, I know you will agree with me that Mother 
Nature has been very kind to California. 


PART II: EARLY EXPLORERS AND 
DISCOVERERS 


CHAPTER IV 

FROM COLUMBUS TO CABRILLO 

It was half a century after Columbus discovered 
America that California was found by white men. But 
after that it was more than two whole centuries before 
white men really came to California to make their homes. 
What a long, long time that was! We must remember 
that during all that time, and for ages before, there were 
thousands of Indians here. 

Columbus. — Christopher Columbus was the great 
captain who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from far- 
off Spain and found in 1492 the New World which a little 
later was named America. But Columbus did not find 
the gold and precious stones for which he was looking, 
and did not know — no one knew then — that America 
is between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. 

Balboa. — It was Balboa that pushed his way through 
the swamps and jungles of the Isthmus of Panama, then 
climbed the mountains till he reached the top and looked 
westward. He was overjoyed to see the shining waters 
of the mighty Pacific; he had discovered the greatest 
of all oceans. He waded into the water and claimed the 
ocean and the lands about it for Spain. 

20 


FROM COLUMBUS TO CABRILLO 


21 



Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean 

Magellan. — More wonderful still, Magellan was the 
captain who first sailed his ship from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific by passing through a narrow passage of water 
now called the Straits of Magellan. Then he came up 
along the coast of South America, and sailed on and on 
to the west until he reached the Philippine Islands. The 
brave captain lost his life, but his men sailed the good 
ship Victoria across the Indian Ocean and back to Spain, 
the starting point. They had sailed clear around the 








22 EARLY EXPLORERS AND DISCOVERERS 

world, and proved that 
the world is round, and 
not flat, as most people 
believed at that time. 

Cortes. — About that 
same time another great 
Spaniard, a daring sol¬ 
dier named Cortes, dis¬ 
covered Mexico, with its 
big cities, and mountain 
roads, and crops of grain. 
But Cortes also found in 
Mexico much gold and 
silver and many precious 
stones. He wrote letters 
about merchants buying 
and selling bright jewels, medicines, honey, sugar, and 
other things; also about great temples and wonderful 
gardens. And some of the people told him stories 
about still other lands that were full of riches. 

All this land and all these things he wanted for his 
country and his king. After a cruel war against the race 
of Indians called Aztecs, the country was taken away from 
them and became a possession of Spain. Cortes had 
conquered Mexico, which then became known as “New 
Spain,” for Spain was the mother country. 

It was Cortes who prepared the way for the discovery 
of California. When he was in Mexico he heard strange 
stories about a land to the north with great wealth, and 
of course he wanted to find it. Men were sent out in 



Hernando Cortes 




FROM COLUMBUS TO CABRILLO 


23 


ships to search for it. One of the sailors with his crew 
found the land that we now call “Lower California,” 
which is really a part of Mexico. 

Cabrillo. — A few years later Cabrillo sailed north from 
Mexico in charge of two ships. The sea was very rough 
and the men were in danger of losing their lives. It was 
in September, 1542, that brave Cabrillo sailed into San 
Diego Bay — and that was the discovery of our Califor¬ 
nia. He pushed on further to the north. Santa Monica 
Bay was seen and was named the “Bay of Smokes.” 
The beautiful island of Santa Catalina was also visited. 

Then on and on sailed Cabrillo’s ships to the north. 
He wanted very much to find a way to pass from the 
Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. He passed by Monterey 
Bay and the Golden Gate without noticing them. 

Finally on an island near Santa Barbara the brave 
discoverer of California died, and his sailors had to 
return to Mexico without their leader. But the impor¬ 
tant thing for us to remember is that the way to Califor¬ 
nia had at last been found, and that it would never be 
lost again. 


CHAPTER V 


SOME FAMOUS VOYAGES: SEARCHING FOR A 
STRAIT 

Strange as it may seem, it was more than two hundred 
years from the time when Cabrillo made his wonderful 
discovery of California until the Spaniards really had any 
settlement or colony here. But during that long time 
there were a few voyages along our coast that must now 
be described. The first of these was made not by a 
Spaniard but by an Englishman. 

Francis Drake. — Francis Drake became master of his 
own ship when he was only eighteen years old. Not 
long after that he sailed to the New World. One day, 
while he was exploring about the Isthmus of Panama, 
he climbed up a tall tree and saw the water of the Pacific 
Ocean: then he made up his mind that some day he was 
going "to sail those seas.” 

Later on, with the help of the queen of England, he 
got ready and set out with five ships. His own ship be¬ 
came separated from the others, but he kept on until 
he reached the waters of the Pacific Ocean. He captured 
some Spanish ships with their rich cargoes, then kept 
sailing north till he reached the coast of Oregon. 

On his return to the California coast he landed at a 
place north of San Francisco that was named for him, 
“Sir Francis Drake Bay.” He traded with the Indians 

24 


SOME FAMOUS VOYAGES 


25 



Admiral Sir Francis Drake 


and claimed the country for England. It was then called 
“New Albion.” 

After resting a few weeks he set out on his long return 
trip to England by sailing across the Pacific Ocean and 
going around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern end 
of Africa. His voyage had lasted in all almost three 
years, but he had sailed clear around the world. He 



26 EARLY EXPLORERS AND DISCOVERERS 

was the first Englishman to do this. Because he took a 
great deal of wealth and treasure from Spanish ships, he 
was very much feared and disliked by Spanish officers. 

Cavendish. — Besides Drake, several other English 
captains explored the coast of California. One of these 
was Thomas Cavendish. Only a little while after Drake 
reached home, Cavendish started out. He also captured 
a Spanish ship, and he also crossed the Pacific. So he 
also sailed around the world, as Drake had done. 

Cermenho. — The king of Spain was worried because 
Drake and Cavendish had been to California and claimed 
it for England, and because they had captured Spanish 
ships. So in a little while other Spanish captains were 
on their way to the Pacific coast. They were afraid that 
England might win California away from Spain. 

Cermenho reached Drake’s Bay, but in a terrible storm 
his ship was wrecked; so he had to set to work to build 
a new boat out of the lumber he could save from his 
ship. His men nearly starved to death, but they bought 
some acorns and other food from the Indians and finally 
set sail for Mexico in their little boat. Most of them died 
on this terrible voyage, but Cermenho and a few others 
reached Mexico and told their strange story about the 
coast of California. 

Vizcaino. — The king of Spain ordered his captains 
to search the entire coast of California for good harbors, 
so as to keep his ships from being captured by the 
English. 

Vizcaino, a Spanish captain, sailed into San Diego 
Bay, then into Avalon Bay at Santa Catalina, and San 


SOME FAMOUS VOYAGES 


27 



Avalon Bay, Catalina Island 

Pedro Bay, now called Los Angeles Harbor. A little 
later he entered Monterey Bay, as Cabrillo had done 
sixty years before him. Vizcaino carefully studied the 
country round about, saw the great oaks and pine trees, 
the wild game, and the fertile soil; then he wrote out a 
record for those who might come later. 

Sailing north, he had to battle against the wintry 
storms of Cape Mendocino. Still he went bravely on 
till he reached the border of Oregon. Then he returned 
to Mexico, and made his report, which proved to be a 
great help later on when Spain was ready to plant colo¬ 
nies in California. 



28 EARLY EXPLORERS AND DISCOVERERS 

Sailing West to Reach the East. — When Columbus 
sailed away from Spain on his famous voyage, he thought 
that if he kept going west he could reach Japan, or the 
coast of China. Of course he did not then know any¬ 
thing about America, or that there even was such a 
place. The Atlantic Ocean was called the “Sea of 
Darkness.” 

Columbus really found a great deal more than he was 
looking for. He believed the world was round, when 
most people thought it was flat. That is why he sup¬ 
posed he could reach the countries of the East by sailing 
toward the west. But when he tried this, he discovered 
America. Even then he did not know this was a new 
world: he thought he must have landed on the coast of 
China or of India. 

Columbus and the other great explorers felt sure there 
must be a passage of water connecting the Atlantic with 
the Pacific Ocean, although at first they did not know 
there were two oceans with a great continent between. 
The passage they were seeking was called by them the 
“Straits of Anian.” What a great thing it would be if 
some explorer could find this'strait; for then the ship 
might sail through it and save all the time it took to go 
clear down around Cape Horn, and be much safer, 
too. 

On the Lookout. — So every explorer in those days 
was on the lookout for the strait that no one had found, 
but that all believed must lie somewhere between the 
oceans. Not only the Spaniards but also the English 
and the French captains longed to find it. Every time 


SOME FAMOUS VOYAGES 29 

they discovered a new bay or sailed into a river, they 
hoped that this opening in the coast might prove to be 
the strange passage they were looking for. 

Where was this passage supposed to be? Some thought 
it might be south of Mexico, but most people thought it 
must surely be north of Mexico, and probably north of 
America altogether. For a long time it was believed that 
California was an island, and that the strait was just 
north of the island of California. Of course we now know 
there was no such strait as the Strait of Anian. 

False Reports. — Only a few years after Columbus 
discovered America, a man claimed he had really found 
the strait. Later, different captains said they had sailed 
through it. Some drew maps to show where it was and 
what it looked like. One bold man even made a report 
that he had sailed westward through it from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific and then back through the strait to the 
Atlantic. Some people believed him, for everybody 
thought there must be such a passage somewhere. 

Of course we all know now that there was no such 
passage anywhere. Nobody could sail from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific above North America because of the ice 
in the Arctic Ocean, and of course the Isthmus of Panama 
would not let any one sail through south of Mexico. 

The Panama Canal. — But while no strait between 
oceans was ever found, the search for it by a great many 
explorers was a great help in making people know more 
about the coast of California. Now, years and years 
afterward, the United States has built the. wonderful 
Panama Canal, and every day great ships go from the 


30 EARLY EXPLORERS AND DISCOVERERS 

Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Pacific to the At¬ 
lantic. What Spain and England and France could not 
find, our country has made. The Panama Canal takes 
the place of the strange passage the old explorers were 
searching for. 


PART III: SPANIARDS MAKE CALIFORNIA 
THEIR HOME 


CHAPTER VI 

FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA AND THE MISSIONS 

Have you ever been to see one of the old California 
missions? If you have, I am sure you would like to know 
more about them; if you have not, you will surely wish 
to visit one the first time you have a chance. The won¬ 
derful story of California really cannot be told without 
telling of these missions. 

Father Jumpero Serra. — We cannot understand the 
missions until we have come to know something about 
a certain good man, a man who wished to help the 
Indians more than anything else in the world. 

That was Father Jumpero Serra. Even as a boy he 
had wished to come to the New World, not to find gold 
and precious jewels but to teach and help the Indians: 
they were his precious jewels. 

Father Serra’s heart was filled with joy when his 
chance came to start his great work of building missions. 
“Surely,” he said, “It is God’s work to carry the cross of 
the holy faith into the wilderness, and He will go with 
us.” He was made Father-President, and he had sixteen 
missionaries to help him. The task was a hard one, for 
31 


32 SPANIARDS SETTLE CALIFORNIA 

at that time there were no white persons living in Upper 
California, and the Indians were very ignorant. 

With Father Serra and his band of workers came Cap¬ 
tain Portola with a company of soldiers. In all, there 
were four different parties that set out from Lower 
California for Upper California. Two of these parties 
came by land, and two came on ships by sea. 

The First Mission. — It was a great event when this 
expedition was completed and when the mission at San 
Diego was started. That was in 1769 and was the be¬ 
ginning of the white settlement in our California, the 
first mission of the twenty-one in all. Father Serra’s 
heart was filled with joy; but there was much hard 
work yet to be done and many troubles yet to be over¬ 
come. 

Why the Indians Loved Father Serra. — Father Serra 
was kinder to the Indians than he was to himself. Is it 
any wonder they trusted him and learned to love him so 
much? For many years he had a sore on his leg that hurt 
a great deal, but still he would walk many miles even 
when he might just as well ride. He could not bear to 
see the poor people suffer without doing everything he 
could to help them; even the little boys and girls were 
precious to him. 

He was very religious, and he always wished to do 
what was right. His courage never failed. He was a 
true pioneer. Think of all the different things he had to 
do: he chopped down trees, sawed lumber, made adobe 
bricks, built houses, plowed the land and planted the 
seed, cared for the mules and cattle, showed the Indians 


FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA 33 

how to do many kinds of work, and served as doctor; 
teacher, and preacher. 

San Carlos Mission. — The second mission to be 
founded was the one near Monterey. The missionaries 
had a hard time finding the harbor there, which had been 
seen by Vizcaino many, many years before. This mission 
was called San Carlos, and it became the head of all the 
missions. It was here that Father Serra made his home. 
He, himself, founded nine missions in all. 

Death of Father Serra. — When he was seventy years 
old and in poor health, Father Serra walked all the way 
from San Diego to Monterey, visiting the different mis¬ 
sions and showing kindness to the Indians, who were like 
children to him. That was his last long journey. 

The next year the tolling of the mission bell gave word 
to the sorrowing Indians that their brave leader had died. 
They had lost their Father-President. 

The first name to be chosen for California’s Hall of 
Fame in Washington was that of the good man, Father 
Jumpero Serra. He was a truly great man. 

Why Missions Were Founded. — Missions were 
founded in California for the sake of the Indians, but also 
to help the king of Spain to hold the country for himself, 
and to keep other nations from gaining a foothold here. 

Two by two the missionaries came to found each of 
the missions, bringing with them a few soldiers, a little 
band of live stock, furniture for the church, and always 
the mission bells. Fertile spots were chosen not very far 
from the ocean, and nearly all these places are surrounded 
by beautiful scenery. 



Stone Stairway, San Gabriel Mission 




35 


FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA 

Churches and Mission Bells. — Every mission must 
have its bells, and the ringing of the bells was an impor¬ 
tant part of the exercises there. Their sweet tones rang 
out, clear and loud, to chime the hours and to call the 
Indians to prayer. 

The mission churches were for many years the largest 
buildings in California. They were strongly built of 
stone and adobe bricks, with thick walls of a creamy 
white color. The roof was made of heavy red tiles. The 
church tower could be seen for miles around. 

After more than a hundred years, some of the old 
churches are still visited by thousands of people. A few 
of them that were ruined have been rebuilt. The people 
of California feel proud of these old mission churches. 

The Mission Field and Garden. — Each mission had 
its garden, with flowers and vegetables, and its little 
orchard of oranges, olives, pomegranates, pears, figs, 
and sometimes apples, peaches, limes, and plums. Then 
there were the vineyards and grainfields, and a little 
farther away from the buildings were the pasture lands. 
Sometimes hedges of prickly-pear cactus were used as 
fences to protect the garden and the orchard. And very 
good fences these hedges made. 

The soft-toned bells, the bright robes of the priests, 
and the promise of good things to eat and clothes to 
wear brought Indians to the missions. Those who were 
baptized were taught how to plow the ground and plant 
the seed. They learned useful trades, took lessons in 
music and art, and, above all, the priests tried to teach 
them how to be good Christians. 


36 


SPANIARDS SETTLE CALIFORNIA 



Stable at San Luis Obispo Mission 

Father Serra, himself, worked side by side with the 
Indians in the field, plowing and reaping, making adobe 
bricks, digging ditches, building huts, and doing other 
tasks. At every mission there was a place for looms to 
weave coarse cloth, shops for the carpenter, the black¬ 
smith, and the saddlers, and places to treat and store 
grain, tallow, wool, and hides. 

Daily Toil. — The young Indian girls at the missions 
were taught how to sew and spin, as well as to knit and 
weave many kinds of baskets. The married Indians 
were allowed to live in small huts built for them in the 
village near the mission. 

After breakfast the bands of Indian workers went out 




37 


FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA 

to their different tasks under their leaders, and they 
worked till the bell called them to dinner. After the 
simple meal they had a rest; then back they went to 
work till the bell called them to evening prayers. After 
supper some would play a game of ball, some would have 
a dance, and a good many seemed to do just nothing at 
all. They were drilled in singing hymns and were taught 
to play the violin or flute or drum. 

The mission Indians were much like overgrown school 
children; and they were punished when they did not 
obey their teachers or when they made mistakes. 

El Camino Real . — The highway — it was really little 
more than a trail — that led from mission to mission, 
beginning at San Diego, was called El Camino Real , 
which is Spanish for the Royal Road, or the King’s 
Highway. In the early years Father Serra himself 
walked along this highway, stopping to help the Indians 
of the different missions. Not many years ago bells were 
set up here and there along the roadside to mark El 
Camino Real for tourists. Thousands of automobiles 
now glide swiftly along the way that connects the differ¬ 
ent missions. Have you seen any of these pretty bells 
by the side of the road? 

Visitors Made Welcome. — Guest rooms at the mis¬ 
sions were always kept ready for visitors. Since the mis¬ 
sions were about a day’s travel apart, a man traveling 
on horseback could leave one in the morning and easily 
reach the next in time for the evening meal and stay 
there overnight. There was always plenty of food for a 
visitor, and of course he did not have to pay anything for 


38 


SPANIARDS SETTLE CALIFORNIA 



it. Even if he stayed a whole week, he would still be 
welcome. Once in a while the missions had a visit from 
some great explorer, who would be treated with much 
kindness. 

The Missions Broken Up. — After many years the 
time came when there was not enough money for the 
soldiers in California or to run the government. Then 
the missions, which had grown strong with their large 
herds of cattle and growing trade, had to give money 
to the government. That was after Mexico had become 
free from Spain — you remember that California was 
then a part of Mexico. 

There was much trouble with the government. So it 


San Fernando Mission 











FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA 39 

was decided to break up the missions, and it was ex¬ 
pected that the Indians would become their own masters. 
But the Indians did not understand all this trouble and 
change; they suffered a great deal and were very un¬ 
happy. In some ways they were still like children; so 
many things had been done for them that they had not 
learned to think much for themselves. 

It seems sad to think that thousands of them went 
back to their old savage ways of living, and that many of 
them fell into bad habits. They did not get enough to 
eat, and hundreds of them died because they were so 
neglected. No longer did they have the kind mission¬ 
aries to help them. 

The beautiful mission churches began to crumble away, 
and the time came when the days of the early mission 
life were gone forever. But we are glad that some of 
the churches have been repaired by Americans, and that 
in recent years generous men have given money to re¬ 
build others. We may be sure the memory of the Cali¬ 
fornia Missions will always be kept fresh in the minds of 
the people. And the bells along El Camino Real will be 
constant reminders to young and old alike. 


CHAPTER VII 

THE PRESIDIOS AND THE PUEBLOS 

Presidios. — While Father Serra was busy founding 
missions in California, other Spaniards were founding 
forts, called presidios , and villages, called pueblos. Each 
district was to have a presidio , with soldiers to protect 
the country against any white enemies that might come 
and against the Indians when they became warlike. The 
pueblos were the little towns where the early colonists, 
or settlers, lived. 

First of all the presidios to be founded was San Diego, 
which was started by Captain Portola, who, as you will 
remember, had come into California with Father Serra. 
But for a long time the most important of all the presi¬ 
dios was the one at Monterey. This is where the gov¬ 
ernor lived. Monterey was really the first capital of 
California and a very important place in those old 
Spanish days. 

The other presidios were San Francisco and Santa 
Barbara—-making four in all. At present the presidio 
of San Francisco is near the Golden Gate. And now we 
have the four beautiful cities with the same names that 
have grown up around them: San Francisco, Monterey, 
Santa Barbara, and San Diego. It is easy to remember 
these names. 

Pueblos. — The pueblos were founded so that the king 
of Spain might have men with their families living in far- 
40 


THE PRESIDIOS AND .THE PUEBLOS 41 



San Diego Historical Museum 

Located on the exact spot where the early Spanish explorers erected the 
first presidio in California. 

away California who would be true to him and who would 
grow crops of grain for the soldiers at the presidios. 

Each of these little towns had square blocks and lots, 
with a public square, called the plaza, in the center. 
The church was always an important building, and the 
courthouse was found in a place of honor. Near the lots 
where the people had their homes there were small farms 
on which grain and fruits were raised. Farther away was 
the pasture for the cattle. Every colonist was to have a 
yoke of oxen, two cows, two horses, two sheep, two goats, 
and a mule. 











42 


SPANIARDS SETTLE CALIFORNIA 


San Jose. — The first pueblo of California was started 
in Santa Clara Valley in 1776, the year of American 
independence, and seven years after Father Serra founded 
the first mission at San Diego. But the real founding 
of the pueblo took place eleven years later. Altogether 
there were fourteen families that made the beginning of 
what is now the beautiful city of San Jose. 

Los Angeles. — A few years later the second Cali¬ 
fornia pueblo was founded at Los Angeles, with twelve 
families. In all there were less than fifty persons, and 
some of these were part Indian; but they made a begin¬ 
ning of what has become the largest city in the western 
part of the country. In 1931 it celebrated its one 
hundred and fiftieth birthday as La Fiesta de Los 
Angeles. 

Of course, California was really a part of Mexico, 
or New Spain, and it was ruled by Spanish governors. 
We should remember Governor de Neve, because he was 
the founder of both San Jose and Los Angeles. These 
were the only true pueblos under the rule of Spain, 
although the Spaniards tried to start one or two 
others. 

The Colonists. — The first settlers in the pueblos were 
not very good workers. They took life too easy, and 
many of them were quite lazy. The Indians had to do 
most of the hard work in the gardens and in caring for 
the cattle. There were a good many quarrels among the 
colonists, and often somebody had to be put into the 
guardhouse for doing wrong. I think one reason for 
this was that they did not have any good schools for 


THE PRESIDIOS AND THE PUEBLOS 43 

the children like those we now have all over Cali¬ 
fornia. 

But after a while the pueblos began to improve, and 
many of the best people took up their homes on the big 
ranches. And now I know you will be eager to learn 
about the ranch days. 


CHAPTER VIII 

HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN OLD CALIFORNIA 

Rancho and Ranchero. — In the early days of Cali¬ 
fornia there was plenty of land for all who really wanted 
it. For only a few dollars a colonist or settler might have 
a great big ranch. In Spanish such a person was called 
a ranchero, and his land with everything on it was called 
a rancho. 

These ranchos were very large; it might take a man 
on horseback a whole day, or even longer, just to ride 
around one. General Vallejo’s ranch in Sonoma County 
had over one hundred thousand acres in it. Such a ranch 
was bigger than some whole counties. On this Vallejo 
Ranch there were three hundred men to do the work, 
not counting the women and children. 

The ranch houses were one-story buildings made of 
adobe bricks, with thick walls, small windows, and low 
doors. They nearly always had long porches, and on 
these were benches or chairs with rawhide seats. 

Some of the best people and most famous men in the 
country were rancheros. They had large herds of cattle 
and sheep, as well as horses — thousands and thousands 
of them — that ran wild over the hills and in the valleys; 
for in those days there were no fences, though there might 
be a prickly-pear hedge or a ditch around the garden or 
the corral. Each rancher had his horsemen, or cowboys, 
and a good many Indians to work for him. So he found 
44 


HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN OLD CALIFORNIA 45 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 

An Oxcart, or Carreta 

plenty of time for riding around, as well as for games, 
and visiting with his friends. General Vallejo’s nephew, 
after telling us some of the things the ranchero could do, 
adds: “He could also make soap, pottery, and bricks, 
burn lime, tan hides, cut out and put together a pair of 
shoes, make candles, roll cigars, and do a great number 
of things that belong to different trades.” 

Horseback Riding. — Everybody could ride horse¬ 
back. The boys and girls learned to ride when they were 
very young. Sometimes the little children rode with 
their grandparents in the heavy oxcart, called carreta; 
but you may be sure they were glad when the day came 
for them to have riding ponies of their own. Common 



46 


SPANIARDS SETTLE CALIFORNIA 


horses were very cheap, but choice riding horses were 
highly prized. A good horse, already bridled and 
saddled, always stood ready for its rider at the ranch 
house, for the early Californian did not like walking. 

Horse racing was one of the principal sports, and some¬ 
times the races were quite exciting. A good rider could 
pick up a rose or a handkerchief from the ground as his 
horse galloped past. Good riding seemed to be really 
expected of everybody. 

Use of Rawhide. — It seems as if everything that was 
needed was to be found or could be made on the rancho. 
In those days the people could not go to a grocery store 
or a drug store just around the corner. They had to do 
more and make more things for themselves. 

One of the most useful things about the ranch was 
rawhide. This was cattle skin that was not made into 
leather. Strips of it were very tough and held things 
together very tightly. The cowboys showed great skill 
by the ways they could twist, or braid, or roll strings 
made of rawhide. It was used to make whips for driving 
cattle or mules, to tie handles on to all kinds of tools, 
to make chair bottoms and door hinges, to fasten cross 
beams in buildings (instead of using nails), to wrap 
around the stocks of guns, to repair saddles and harness, 
and in a hundred other ways. 

The Rodeo. — At a certain time every spring thou¬ 
sands of cattle that had been scattered about the country 
were brought together, or “bunched,” from miles around, 
so that each owner’s stock might be separated and 
branded. The branding was done by means of hot irons. 


HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN OLD CALIFORNIA 47 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 

A Round-Up, or Rodeo 

That was the way the rancheros had of marking the 
calves and young stock so that everybody would know 
whose they were. 

This gathering was called the rodeo, or round-up. 
It was a time that called for the best horseback riding. 
It was a happy time for the boys and girls, and a time 
of merrymaking for all. There was no lack of good 
things to eat, and there was sure to be exciting sport. 

The Matanza. — Another busy time on the rancho 
was the matanza. That was when cattle were killed by 
hundreds for their hides, for in early California cattle 
were raised mostly for their hides, which were sent away 
to be made into strong leather. 






48 SPANIARDS SETTLE CALIFORNIA 

It was then that the grizzly bears would come down 
from the hills to eat the dead cattle. Some of these 
bears were caught by the skillful cowboys, just for sport. 
A big pile of bones and horns could be found at every 
ranch and mission; sometimes they were even used for 
fences. 

Grain Harvest. — The harvest was surely an interest¬ 
ing scene. Three or four hundred Indians were sent into 
a field of ripe grain with sickles, or butcher knives, or 
hoop iron, to cut the grain, which was then piled into a 
huge stack shaped like a low mound. Then hundreds of 
wild horses were driven in to thresh it by treading on it, 
while the Indians were whooping to make them run faster. 

The Spanish Cavalier. — The ranchero took great 
pride in his favorite horse, his saddle, bridle, and spurs. 
He was kind and generous to all. On his ranch he was 
followed by his pack of faithful dogs. He was a real 
Spanish Cavalier in the New World. He lived in the 
care-free age of California. And now it is pleasant for 
us to look back upon that time of peace and contentment, 
the good old days of the Dons. 

Old Adobe Homes. — If you have ever seen one of the 
old adobe houses, you can have some idea of what the 
homes of early Californians looked like. But you must 
not think that the houses always looked old and run¬ 
down. Even if the floors were nothing but the earth, 
they were swept clean by the Indian servants; and the 
houses themselves were plastered inside and outside and 
tinted with some light color. They were cool in summer 
and warm in winter. 


HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN OLD CALIFORNIA 49 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 

Adobe Ranch House, Diamond Bar Ranch, Spadia 
Nearly all of them were one-story houses, built like a 
square, with an open space inside that was called the 
patio. The best houses had roofs made of red tiles. 
They did not have any kind of stoves or heaters in the 
houses: the Californians lived most of the time outdoors. 

The people were very fond of pepper. At every house, 
hanging upon the outer wall, one of the first things to 
be seen by a visitor was a string of bright red peppers. 

The ladies were great lovers of flowers. Every home 
had its little garden of roses, lilies, pinks, hollyhocks, 
and other flowers. Of all these, the rose was the favorite. 

The families of the early Californians were very large: 
sometimes there were fifteen or more boys and girls in 




50 


SPANIARDS SETTLE CALIFORNIA 


one family. The children were brought up to have high 
respect for older persons; they were always polite and 
kind to their parents. 

Everybody seemed like a neighbor to everybody else, 
although the homes might be many miles apart. Even 
strangers were always welcome. A visitor might travel 
for days and days without any money and still be treated 
kindly at the ranch homes or at the missions. There 
was no need for hotels in those days. They did not have 
doctors and lawyers, either, and not even post offices. 
But news would be carried quickly from ranch to ranch 
or from one place to another by horsemen or by Indian 
runners. 

The Fandango. — The people were very fond of danc¬ 
ing. So when the rodeo was over, all hands joined in a 
lively dance, called the fandango. The old folks took 
part with the young people. 

You may be sure there was a big fandango whenever 
there was a wedding. Friends put on their best clothes 
and would go for miles and miles to be present. Many 
a time the dancing lasted till morning. Almost any 
kind of a party where there was dancing was called a 
fandango. 

Grizzly Bears. — Let me tell you about one kind of 
sport that took real bravery. Sometimes, on moonlight 
nights, young Spanish gentlemen rode out on their 
horses to lasso grizzly bears that had come down" from 
the hills. Two men on horseback, with their strong 
ropes (called reatas ) made of rawhide, could easily hold 
a big bear. 


HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN OLD CALIFORNIA 51 

After Mr. Bruin had been led, or almost dragged, 
through the streets of the village, he was sometimes used 
to amuse the crowds in a bull-and-bear fight. This was 
sure to be a fierce struggle. In it a hind leg of the grizzly 
was often tied to a forefoot of the bull. It was a very 
exciting sport, but it seems to us it must have been 
quite cruel. I am sure we would not allow it now. 

A Care-Free, Golden Age. — The early Spanish- 
Californians did not have many of the good things we 
all enjoy today. Of course, there were no automobiles 
or fine carriages, no cars or motor boats, no electric 
lights, no beautiful schoolhouses, no newspapers or 
magazines, no radios, and no airplanes. But they did 
have a fine, simple life, and they were happy in it. They 
had good saddle horses and knew how to ride them; 
they had violins and guitars and knew how to play them; 
they enjoyed the dance and loved their mission churches. 
They were the first real pioneers of our California. Long 
ago most of their houses have sunk back to earth again; 
but here and there may still be seen the ruins of an old 
adobe to remind us of the simple homes of old California. 


PART IV: CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 


CHAPTER IX 

THE COMING OF STRANGERS 

Californians Live by Themselves. — At the time of the 
missions and the big ranchos the Californians lived 
almost entirely by themselves. They saw very few 
strangers from other lands. They did not travel in far¬ 
away countries; very few of them even visited Mexico. 
They did not know much about the United States — 
this is not very strange — although most of them had 
heard of George Washington. 

It is hard for us in these days to realize how completely 
separate the people were then from the rest of the world. 
They did not seem to care what was going on across the 
ocean or on the other side of the high mountains. And 
why should they care? They had happy times in Cal¬ 
ifornia by themselves. 

But they could not expect that nobody at all would 
ever come to their beautiful home land. Some visitors 
did come from other lands. We must now get acquainted 
with these visitors. 

La Perouse. — The first great man to come to Cali¬ 
fornia as a visitor from any other country than Spain was 
La Perouse, who was a Frenchman. When he and his 
men landed from their two ships at Monterey, they were 

52 


THE COMING OF STRANGERS 53 

treated very kindly. He had a chance to see everything 
at San Carlos Mission, and he was given many fine pres¬ 
ents. He afterward sent some potatoes and other seeds 
and the first hand flour mill to the mission. 

La Perouse wrote a description of the country, telling 
about its people and its missions. This is one of the best 
pictures we have of how the early Californians really 
lived and what the missionaries and the Indians did at 
the missions. 

Vancouver. — A few years later another great man 
paid a visit to California. This was Captain Vancouver, 
an Englishman, who sailed through the Golden Gate 
into San Francisco Bay. He had been sent out by the 
king of England to explore the whole coast. This was 
more than two hundred years after Francis Drake had 
visited the coast. 

Like La Perouse, Captain Vancouver was also treated 
kindly. When he visited Santa Clara Mission he found 
the valley like a lovely park. He also thought that San 
Francisco Bay was as fine a port as any in the whole 
world. Before he sailed away he gave a show and at the 
show had some fireworks. This greatly pleased the 
Spaniards and the Indians, for they had never seen any¬ 
thing like it before. 

Yankee Captains. — Yankee captains with their Bos¬ 
ton ships were on the sharp lookout for furs of sea otters. 
These furs were sold for a high price in China. 

One of the first of the captains to come to the Califor¬ 
nia coast was Captain Dorr, who came while Washington 
was President of the United States. 


54 CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

In a few years from that time more than a dozen 
American ships were used in the fur trade. At first 
they were not wanted in California; but a little later 
their captains were welcomed, because they bought the 
cattle hides from the rancheros, and because they brought 
many pretty and useful things from Boston which even 
the boys and girls of California were glad to have. So 
the Californians became friendly to these strangers called 
Americans. 

The Russians. — When the Russians in Alaska heard 
about the wheat in California they sent some men down 
on a visit, for they needed grain very badly. 

Several years later a party of Russians came down from 
Alaska and made a settlement near Bodega Bay. Then 
they built a fort and called it Fort Ross. 

The Russians in California did some farming and fur 
trading, but the real Californians did not like to have 
them in their country. So after a good many years 
Captain Sutter, who had built Sutter’s Fort, bought 
their cannon and other things and moved them over to 
his own fort at Sacramento. Then the Russians went 
on board their ship, said farewell to California, and 
sailed away, never to return. 

Captain John A. Sutter. — Who was this Captain 
Sutter? 

He was one of the most famous and most interesting 
pioneers in the whole story of California. He was at 
that time a fine-looking young Swiss, who wished to 
have a colony and build a fort on the Sacramento River. 

Captain Sutter became a citizen of Mexico so that he 


THE COMING OF STRANGERS 


55 



Sacramento Chamber of Commerce 

Sutter’s Fort Today 

could have a big rancho. He received a large tract of 
land, reaching far into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 
He decided to build his fort near the American River, 
not far from where it flows into the Sacramento River. 

Here the Captain lived like a prince, with many In¬ 
dians to work for him. He became a trapper, a stock 
raiser, a farmer, and a merchant, all in one. With the 
cannon and muskets he had bought from the Russians 
he was well able to defend himself. 

Sutter’s Fort became the headquarters for thousands 
of American pioneers who came to California in covered 
wagons, for the Captain was very friendly to the Ameri- 



56 CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

cans. It was on his property that gold was discovered 
and that many other things happened. Sutter’s Fort 
is now kept as a public park and museum in Sacramento 
and is visited by thousands of persons every year. 

Some Early Settlers. — We have seen that even in 
those early days a stranger would come to California 
now and then to stay, or maybe would be left from one of 
the Boston ships. Some of these were Englishmen, a 
very few were Frenchmen, but most of them were 
Americans. Little by little people in far-away lands 
were learning about California; and the more they 
learned about it, the more they wished to come to this 
beautiful country. 

Jedediah Smith. — One of the first Americans to open 
a pathway into California was Jedediah Smith, a brave 
hunter and trapper. We owe a great deal to him and to 
others like him; for while they were exploring new 
country in search of furs, they were really helping to 
win the West for the United States. 

More than a hundred years ago —it was in 1826, 
to be exact — Jedediah Smith and his company came 
across the Rocky Mountains and across the desert into 
southern California, passing near the place where the 
city of San Bernardino is now. A few Americans had 
reached California before him, but they had come by sea 
on Yankee ships, while Smith came over land. His 
coming was like opening the door for other Americans to 
come into this land, where the peaceful Spanish and 
Mexican people were living on the ranchos, at the pueblos, 
and about the missions. 


THE COMING OF STRANGERS 


57 


Captain Smith was a strong young man, with clear 
blue eyes and sandy hair, more than six feet tall and 
straight as an arrow. He wore a buckskin suit and 
carried two pistols at his belt. He has been called a 
“knight in buckskin.” 

The Mexican governor of California did not like to 
have this American trapper in his country; so Smith 
agreed to leave and go north to the Columbia River. 
But he was slow about this, and spent some time trap¬ 
ping in the San Joaquin Valley. 

In the month of May Captain Smith with two of his 
men started across the Sierra Nevada to return East. 
The snow was still deep in these mountains, and the trip 
was terrible; but they finally reached Salt Lake. By 
this trip Smith earned the new title “Pathfinder of the 
Sierra.” 

When he returned to California, he had a great deal 
of trouble. He was even put into jail for a while. But 
what he did made the San Joaquin and Sacramento 
valleys better known. He made his way north into the 
Oregon country, and — perhaps greatest of all — started 
one of the principal routes from the Rocky Mountains 
region into California. All those who came later owed 
much to Captain Jedediah Smith. 

James Ohio Pattie. — Here was another young man, 
a hunter and trapper from Kentucky, coming into 
California a few years after Smith, whose story will 
never be forgotten. James Ohio Pattie came with his 
father in a trapping party. The governor was not pleased 
to have them in California. He put them into prison and 




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THE COMING OF STRANGERS 59 

treated them badly. James’s father became very sick, 
and soon died. 

Later on, after he was released from prison, James 
Pattie helped the governor as interpreter; that is, he 
helped this Spaniard to understand what was said in 
English. Then the governor got him to act as a doctor 
and vaccinate thousands of the people so that they would 
not have smallpox. After a great deal of traveling up 
and down California, Pattie left for Mexico, and from 
there returned to his native land, a poor man. Years 
later he came back to California with the great army of 
gold hunters. 

Ewing Young. — Still another bold American fur 
trader who came over the mountains was Ewing Young. 
He was a strong leader, who reached Los Angeles a few 
years after the time of Pattie. 

Young trapped in the San Joaquin and the Sacramento 
valleys and hunted otter along the coast. He made his 
way even as far as Oregon, then back to California. 
The next summer he returned to Los Angeles. He was 
one of the most important of the trappers and fur traders. 

Other Trappers. — In all there were hundreds of 
American trappers in those early days; but the Mexicans 
did not care much about trapping. What the trappers 
were in search of was fur-bearing animals, and there 
were many thousands of these in California and along 
the Pacific coast. There was many an exciting time, and 
there were also many dangers. Kit Carson was one of 
the men in Ewing Young’s expedition. He was a won¬ 
derful scout. 


60 CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

While these bold men were in search of furs so as to 
make money, they did a great deal to prepare the way 
for other Americans to come to California, and at last 
for the United States to win it from Mexico. 

The First “Emigrant Train. ,, — The name John Bid- 
well will never be forgotten in the Golden State. This 
great pioneer was a member of the first real train of 
American settlers to come across the wide plains and 
the high mountains into California. 

The party of pioneers was called a “train” because they 
had many wagons, drawn by oxen and mules, which 
were strung out like a long train of cars. The pioneers, 
themselves, were called “emigrants” because they were 
leaving the United States to go to distant California, 
which was then a part of Mexico. To “emigrate” means 
to “move out of” a place or country. 

John Bid well was a young teacher of Ohio. After 
hearing a man talk about California, picturing it as a 
fairyland, he decided to see that wonderful country for 
himself. 

But how was he to get to California, which was more 
than two thousand miles away, with no roads to follow? 
He knew it was somewhere in the West; but he could 
not get a guide book, nor even a good map. 

Getting Ready to Start. — You must remember John 
Bidwell was a brave young man, and very strong. He 
was not afraid of hardships. He was not the kind to 
be discouraged. So when springtime came — this was 
in 1841 — he had brought together a party of sixty-nine 
persons ready to start for California. They had strong 


61 


THE COMING OF STRANGERS 

covered wagons, with oxen, mules, and horses. Of course 
they had guns and a supply of flour, sugar, and other 
things to eat. Some of the men had their families with 
them. What a trip that must have been for the boys and 
girls! Bid well himself was clerk of the party, and we 
are now glad that he kept a record of all the things that 
happened. 

Across the Plains. — It was past the middle of May 
when this party was finally ready to leave camp on the 
Missouri River and start for California. Can you imag¬ 
ine what a picture it must have been that spring morn¬ 
ing? At the head of the train were some brave mission¬ 
aries with their carts, then came a row of wagons drawn 
by horses and mules, and last of all five big wagons drawn 
by seventeen yoke of oxen — all led along by their 
Rocky Mountain guide. 

Each day they went as far as they could go — some 
days twenty miles and some days only five or ten 
miles. That seems like a very short distance, but you 
must remember there were no roads at all for them to 
follow. 

At night the wagons were all drawn together in the 
form of a square, and the horses were put inside the pen, 
or corral. The cooking was done in the daytime, and 
fires were put out before night for fear the Indians might 
see them. 

They saw thousands and thousands of buffaloes; some¬ 
times they were in danger of being run over and trampled 
to death by the great herds of these huge animals. They 
saw large numbers of elk and antelope; and when they 


62 CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

came to the Rocky Mountains, many mountain sheep 
could be seen. 

Crossing the Mountains. — In the desert country one 
of the hardest things to do was to get water for the 
pioneers and for their animals. Sometimes they had to 
go all day long and then all night without a drop of water 
to drink. 

By the time they came to the high mountains the 
season was so late that they decided they should have to 
leave all the wagons behind to save time. No wagons 
had ever been taken across those mountains, and Bid- 
well felt they must get into California before the winter 
snows came or they could not get in at all. 

Then they had harder times than ever. Their food 
supply was gone; the very last ox was killed and eaten. 
The nights were freezing cold; winter was at hand in the 
Sierra Nevada. And most of the men were now on foot, 
for such horses as had not been stolen were quite given out. 

Still the brave pioneers struggled on. One day they 
went nine miles; another, only six. Is it any wonder they 
asked whether they should ever really reach California? 

The Journey's End. — One morning they caught a 
view of the great valley to the west, with rivers running 
through it, and trees scattered over it as far as the eye 
could reach. The next day —it was the last day of 
October — they were made glad by the sight of hundreds 
of antelope and other animals, and birds, and beautiful 
green grass. Then there was plenty of food, and spark¬ 
ling water to drink. The terrible hardships were passed. 
How thankful they all were! 


THE COMING OF STRANGERS 63 

It was six months after starting out that this first 
emigrant train reached the end of its great trek, near the 
base of Mount Diablo. After all their hardships John 
Bidwell and his party had at last succeeded in reaching 
California. 

Bidwell a True Californian. — Bidwell has been called 
a prince of pioneers because he came so early — years 
before the great gold discovery — and because he be¬ 
came so great a Californian. He soon reached Sutter’s 
Fort where he worked for Captain Sutter for several 
years. Later he was called the “Father of Chico,” be¬ 
cause he laid out that town and did so much for it. He 
was one of the best farmers in the state, and was a great, 
good man, who for a long time did many things for 
California. Bidwell was a true Californian. 


CHAPTER X 


THE STARS AND STRIPES IN CALIFORNIA 

Three Exploring Expeditions. — The man who is 
known as the “Pathfinder” was not one of the early 
California settlers, like John Bidwell, but a man who 
came after Bidwell, and who had a great deal to do with 
making California an American state. This man went 
out west from the Missouri River, on three expeditions 
for our government, to explore the Rocky Mountain 
region and the Pacific coast. His first trip did not bring 
him into California at all. On his second trip he reached 
Sutter’s Fort and the San Joaquin Valley. His third 
trip was the most important in the story of California — 
indeed, this story could not be told without telling about 
the daring young engineer, Captain John Charles 
Fremont. 

Fremont in California. — When he came into Cali¬ 
fornia the second time Fremont had under him a force 
of about sixty men and a large band of horses and mules. 
With him was Kit Carson, who, you remember, had been 
in California before, and who was one of the best guides 
that ever climbed a mountain or followed a trail. 

It is no wonder that some of the Californians thought 
Fremont’s party really looked like an army coming into 
their country. But he told them that his men were not 
soldiers, but were surveyors, and that what he wished 
was not to make war, but to find a better route from the 
64 


THE STARS AND STRIPES IN CALIFORNIA 65 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 


John C. Fremont 

United States to the Pacific Coast. Still, his men were 
well armed, and they surely looked like soldiers. 

Fremont was warned by the commander at Monterey 
that he must keep away from the places where most of 
the settlements and people were. Then, when he did 
something that did not please the Mexican commander, 
he was told that he must leave California at once. This 
made Fremont angry; so he said he would not leave. 

Fremont Raises the American Flag. — Fremont knew 



66 CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

before coming to California that there might be war 
between his country and Mexico; so he was not sorry 
to have a chance to raise the Stars and Stripes. This he 
did when told he would have to leave. His men quickly 
built a fort on Hawk’s Peak. Then it did look as if there 
would be war in California right away. The American 
flag waved from a pole for three days, and you may be 
sure this did not please the Mexicans. 

But before they were ready to attack Fremont and 
try to drive him out of the country he left Hawk’s Peak 
and led his forces up through the San Joaquin Valley to 
Sutter’s Fort, and then started north for Oregon. The 
Mexicans did not give him any trouble; so there was 
no fighting then. 

Gillespie Brings Important News. — When Fremont 
had reached the border of Oregon, a messenger with 
important news overtook him. This was Lieutenant 
Gillespie, who had been sent all the way from the United 
States to tell Fremont not to leave California, because 
he would be needed there. So instead of going on into 
Oregon and then home to the East, he led his men back 
into the Sacramento Valley. 

When the Californians learned that Fremont and his 
men had returned, there was plenty of excitement. 
“What does this mean?” they asked. The Mexican 
general talked about driving all the Americans out of 
California, and some of the Americans wished that Fre¬ 
mont would lead them in capturing California for the 
United States. In those days everybody seemed to be 
talking about war. 


THE STARS AND STRIPES IN CALIFORNIA 67 

The taking of California by Americans was about to 
be begun in earnest. In a little while things would be 
all changed. And in all this Fremont was one of the most 
active and important leaders. 

Trouble between Californians and Americans. — You 
have already learned that California has a state flag and 
that this has on it the picture of a big grizzly bear. But 
the first Bear Flag has an interesting story of its own; 
and it is a story that every boy and girl will wish to hear. 

Many Americans had settled in California, and most 
of them thought it would be fine if this country should 
sometime belong to the United States. But the Cali¬ 
fornians were afraid the Americans might become too 
strong; so they talked a good deal about driving them 
all out. But the government of Mexico did not seem to 
be able to do much about it. 

When a party of Americans captured a band of 
Mexican horses, it looked as if there might be war. And 
besides, Captain Fremont, as you have just read, was 
then in California, and he had learned from Lieutenant 
Gillespie that there was likely to be war between the 
United States and Mexico. 

Arrest of General Vallejo. — In those days General 
Vallejo was living with his large family at the town of 
Sonoma, north of San Francisco. He had a big ranch 
and was a great commander. The Americans knew 
he was one of the strongest of all Californians; so some 
of them decided to arrest him, although he had been 
friendly to them for a long time. One morning just at 
daylight, his house was surrounded, the General was sur- 


68 


CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 



The Bear Flag of the California Republic 

prised and arrested, and was taken as a prisoner to Sut¬ 
ter’s Fort. 

The Bear Flag Republic. — When the Americans 
realized what had been done, they decided to go ahead 
and have a government of their own in California. 
William B. Ide was chosen leader. 

One of the first things needed was a flag, for of course 
the Americans in California did not have any right to 
use the Stars and Stripes. So they quickly made up a 
flag, using the red, white, and blue colors. They got a 
pioneer to paint a star and a grizzly bear on a piece of 
cloth, because the grizzly was the strongest animal in 
California. Then they painted under the star and the 
bear the words CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC. 




THE STARS AND STRIPES IN CALIFORNIA 69 

This new flag was then raised on a pole in Sonoma, and 
the American leaders made ready to carry it to other 
parts of California. But they soon found out that it 
would not be necessary, because very soon the American 
flag was raised by the United States forces. Lieutenant 
Ide and the other men of the California Republic were 
very glad then to take down the Bear Flag and join with 
the regular forces in making California a real part of the 
United States; that is what they had wanted all the 
time. The war with Mexico had really begun, and that 
brought a great change in California, making the Ameri¬ 
can pioneers very happy. 

And so, many years later, when California wished to 
have a state flag, it was decided to copy the grizzly bear 
that was painted so long before at Sonoma. That is 
how it happens that the Bear Flag is thought so much of 
in our state today. 

You have already learned that Captain Fremont 
raised the American flag on Hawk’s Peak when the 
Mexican general told him he must leave. However, that 
was not really the first time that the Stars and Stripes 
were raised in California. Four years before that time 
Commodore Jones had raised the flag at Monterey, when 
he thought there was war between the United States and 
Mexico; but this flag was taken down only a few days 
later. 

The American Flag Goes Up to Stay. — We are now to 
learn about the time when the Stars and Stripes were to 
be raised in California and remain always as our real flag 
in the Golden State. 


70 CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

Commodore Sloat, of the American Navy, heard that 
there was war between his country and Mexico; so he 
sailed at once for Monterey. He learned about Captain 
Fremont and about the Bear Flag. Then he decided to 
raise the American flag to show that California was to 
belong to the United States. It was July 7, 1846, when 
he hoisted the Stars and Stripes over the old Custom 
House in Monterey. This time the flag was not to come 
down again. 

In a few days our flag was flying also over San Fran¬ 
cisco, Sonoma, Sacramento, and San Jose. From that 
time we may say California really belonged to the 
United States. 

California Becomes American. — But all this could 
not be done in a day. When Commodore Sloat sailed 
away from Monterey, Commodore Stockton helped 
Captain Fremont in taking control of California. Many 
of the American settlers joined Fremont’s company, 
which marched all the way from Sonoma to San Diego, 
raising the American flag at every important place. 

But there was a good deal of trouble in southern Cali¬ 
fornia, and especially at Los Angeles, which was taken 
away from the Americans and had to be recaptured. 
That was not easy. Then it was that the most famous 
horseback ride in all the history of California took 
place. 

The Horseback Ride of “Lean John. ,, — When the 
angry Californians were pressing hard upon the American 
forces at Los Angeles, a messenger was sent north to 
Monterey on horseback to ask for more soldiers. This 




THE STARS AND STRIPES IN CALIFORNIA 71 

was Juan Flaco, whose real name was John Brown, and 
who was nicknamed “ Lean John.” Of course there were 
no telephone or telegraph lines, no railroads, no auto¬ 
mobiles, no good roads of any kind. 

But how “Lean John” did ride! When his horse be¬ 
came tired, he caught a new horse. One of his horses was 
shot while he was riding it. On and on he rode, not 
stopping for a minute to sleep, until he finally reached 
Monterey. He had ridden about five hundred miles 
and had done it in only fifty-two hours! Even then he 
arrived too late to do any good, for the Californians had 
already captured Los Angeles. But “Lean John” will 
always be remembered as the brave rider who went 
through all kinds of dangers trying so hard to help the 
Americans. 

The Conquest of California Made Complete. — Los 
Angeles and much of southern California had to be cap¬ 
tured a second time before being fully controlled by the 
Americans. Fremont, Stockton, and General Kearny 
each had a part in this. At last the Stars and Stripes 
were again flying over all parts of California. 

When peace came between the United States and Mex¬ 
ico, everybody knew that California was American and 
not Mexican any more. And what wonderful things were 
now to happen in California under the American flag! 


CHAPTER XI 

THE SAD STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 

We are now to learn of the Donner Party, one of the 
many groups of brave pioneers that started out in early 
days for far-away California with high hopes and fine 
prospects. There is no story in all the history of the 
Golden State that is more sorrowful than the sad story 
of the Donner Party. It shows us the troubles and hard¬ 
ships of our pioneer fathers and mothers as nothing else 
can do. But in it we also see so much of loving care and 
tender feeling that, in spite of all its sadness, it still is 
beautiful. Such a story can never be forgotten. 

The Donner Party. — George Donner and his brother 
Jacob were living quietly at home with their families in 
Illinois. They heard that in distant California there 
were fine farming lands and that parties were being made 
up to take the long trip in search of new homes. The 
Donner brothers became so much excited about what 
could be done in California that they and some of their 
friends decided to undertake the difficult journey. This 
was nearly two years before the great gold discovery. 

Thirty-two persons — fathers, mothers, and children— 
were in the party, which called for ten or twelve covered 
wagons. After they had traveled a good while together, 
others joined with them, until finally there was a long 
train of about forty wagons in all. 

Across the Plains. —For most of the way across the 

72 


THE SAD STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 73 



Camp at Donner Lake 

great plains it was like a wonderful picnic for the chil¬ 
dren. Every day they were seeing something new and 
having fresh amusement. The Fourth of July was not 
forgotten; it was celebrated in fine style, far, far from 
home. 

A great mistake was made when the leaders decided 
to try a new route so that they might save time and not 
have so far to travel. But it took them a full month to 
go as far as they supposed they could go in a single week. 
Then it was found that they did not have enough sup¬ 
plies to carry them through to California; so two of their 
brave men started out on horseback for Sutter’s Fort to 
bring more food. Every day there were troubles and 
delays; it seemed as if the hand of death had been laid 



74“ CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

upon the desert country. Even to the children the 
journey was no longer like a merry picnic. 

Snowed In. — It was late in October when the party 
made ready to cross the Sierra Nevada. They had rested 
themselves and their tired animals for a few days at the 
place where Reno now stands. But that proved to be a 
terrible mistake, for they could now see dark clouds 
hanging over the mountain tops, and soon came the 
news that on ahead it was snowing. Winter had come 
almost a month earlier than it was expected. 

The brave pioneers tried their best to reach the sum¬ 
mit, but it could not be done! The snowflakes fell thicker 
and faster. The half-starved oxen could not drag the 
heavy wagons through the deep snow. Then the wagons 
were left behind, and the food supply was packed on 
the oxen in a last attempt to get over the crest. Im¬ 
possible! It was too late. Winter held the Donner 
Party fast in his icy grip. 

The only thing that was left to do was to prepare to en¬ 
dure the months until springtime, snowed in, yonder in 
the high Sierra. Cabins must be quickly built, the wood 
supply must be gathered, and food of some kind must 
be provided. We who have always had good comfortable 
homes, with warm clothing and plenty to eat, can never 
know the terrible suffering of the children or their 
parents in “Starved Camp.” 

Hardships in “Starved Camp.” — There was now real 
danger that everybody would starve or freeze. For 
many weary days they had nothing but the hide from the 
poor oxen to live on. Pieces of beef hide were cut up 


THE SAD STORY OF THE DONNER PARTY 75 



The Arrival of the Relief Party 
into thin strips, then singed and scraped, then boiled 
till they were like glue, before they could be swallowed. 
Bones were burned and eaten, and the starving people 
even tried to eat the bark and twigs from the friendly 
pine trees. When some little field mice that had crept 
into camp were found, they were quickly caught and used 
for food. 

How the watchful men did work, and the women, too, 
trying to save the children! But the news of their sad 
plight had gone on before them. From house to house at 
Sutter’s Fort and in San Francisco rang out the cry, 
“Men, women, and little children are snow-bound in 
the Sierras, and starving to death!” 

Relief at Last. — At last relief was at hand. One good 
day shouts were heard, and coming down the mountain 




76 CALIFORNIA BECOMES AMERICAN 

on the deep snow were seen seven men with a big pack of 
food. In all, four different relief parties made their way 
to the dismal camp of the poor, suffering pioneers; but 
by that time spring had come, and those who were left 
of the Donner Party were quickly taken to Sutter’s 
Fort, where they were kindly treated and where they 
could enjoy real California sunshine. 

One of these was a little girl named Virginia Reed. 
Many years afterward I heard from her own lips the 
story of the terrible sufferings of the Donner Party during 
the long months, snow-bound in the Sierra Nevada, near 
the beautiful lake that is now called Donner Lake. And 
to help us never to forget, the Native Sons of the Golden 
West — that is, men who were born in California — 
have placed a big monument at the head of the lake. 
We shall always remember the Donner Party. 


PART V: GOLD DAYS 


CHAPTER XII 

THE STORY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 

Early Stories about Gold. — Stories about gold and the 
strong desire to find it brought many a Spanish explorer 
to the New World. Everywhere they went, they looked 
for it — and how keen they were to find it! 

Even before California was discovered, Cortes heard 
strange stories about gold north of Mexico. People 
were dreaming of gold. That is one reason why Cabrillo 
finally reached California; he was in search of the land 
of gold. 

But the Spaniards never found the gold they were 
looking for. It is true that later they did find some gold 
not far from Los Angeles, but the great gold fields of 
California were not discovered by them. The stores of 
gold were in California all the time, but the Spaniards 
did not know where to look for them. 

Those who did find gold and make it known to all the 
world were Americans, long years after the time of 
Cabrillo and of Father Serra. And now we must tell 
the story of how gold was really found, for this is one of 
the most wonderful stories of all. 

Captain Sutter and James Marshall. — You remember 
that when Captain Sutter built his fort near the Sacra¬ 
mento River, he did many kinds of work on his big 
77 


78 


GOLD DAYS 



ranch. He had thousands of cattle, sheep, and horses; 
he raised crops of grain and fruit; he had blacksmith 
and carpenter shops, and kept a store. He found that 
he needed a flour mill; so he hired James Marshall to 
go up into the foothills and look for some good trees for 
lumber. 

At a place which the Indians called Coloma, about 
forty miles from Sutter’s Fort, Marshall built a small 
sawmill. He had about forty Indians to help him put 
up some log houses, make a dam, and do the other work. 
Then they dug a ditch for the water, with a gate to let 
it on or shut it off. Every evening Marshall would raise 
the gate so as to let the water race down and wash the 
sand and gravel out of the ditch during the night. Then 




THE STORY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 79 

early in the morning he would walk along the ditch to 
shut off the water and plan the work for the day. 

The Great Discovery. — Marshall himself must now 
go on with his own story. Here it is: “One morning in 
January — it was a clear, cold morning; I shall never 
forget that morning — as I was taking my usual walk 
along the race after shutting off the water, my eye was 
caught with the glimpse of something shining in the 
bottom of the ditch. There was about a foot of water 
running then. I reached my hand down and picked it 
up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was 
gold. The piece was about half the size and of the shape 
of a pea. Then I saw another piece in the water. After 
taking it out I sat down and began to think right hard. 
I thought it was gold, and yet it did not seem to be of 
the right color: all the gold coin I had seen was of a 
reddish tinge; this looked more like brass... . Putting 
one of the pieces on a hard river stone, I took another 
and commenced hammering it. It was soft, and didn’t 
break; it therefore must be gold, but largely mixed with 
some other metal, very likely silver; for pure gold, I 
thought, would certainly have a brighter color. 

“When I returned to our cabin for breakfast I showed 
the two pieces to my men. They were all a good deal 
excited. . . . However, to satisfy them, I told them that, 
as soon as we had the mill finished, we would devote a 
week or two to gold hunting and see what we could 
make out of it. 

“While we were working in the race after this discovery 
we always kept a sharp lookout, and in the course of 


80 


GOLD DAYS 


three or four days we had picked up about three ounces — 
our work still progressing as lively as ever, for none of us 
imagined at that time that the whole country was 
sowed with gold. ,, 

The Gold Rush Begins. — The secret was too big to 
be kept. It was told to Captain Sutter and a few friends. 
Then, when everybody had learned the secret, it was no 
longer a secret at all! The news about gold in California 
spread like a prairie fire on a hot summer day. And the 
farther the story went, the larger and more wonderful 
it seemed to be. 

Miners rushed to Sutter’s mill with picks and shovels. 
In a short time it looked as if everybody had turned 
prospector. 

But all this made trouble for Captain Sutter. His 
fields were left without men to do the work; there was 
nobody to take care of his crops; his horses and cattle 
were stolen or killed; the eager miners tramped all over 
his place and paid no attention to his property. Both 
Sutter and Marshall, who had found the gold, died at 
last as poor men. 

The Land of El Dorado. — People in the East, in 
England, and all over the world now looked upon 
California as a land of gold, of the true El Dorado. 
“Eureka! Eureka!” the shout went up. “I have found 
it!” And from everywhere came the reply, “I’m bound 
for California!” 

Everything was quickly changed. Fields were left 
half-planted, houses half-built; newspapers lost their 
readers; carpenters, teamsters, lawyers, doctors, and 


THE STORY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 81 



Washing Gold Out of Sand 

even sailors, all turned miners as the magic word was 
heard over the land, “Gold! Gold!! GOLD!!!” 

How the Gold Was Mined. — In early days the gold 
of California was mined in many different ways. We 
must learn about some of these. 

The prospector always carried his pan with him. When 
he thought there might be gold in the gravel or dirt, he 
filled the pan with it and then very carefully washed it 
away in the edge of a stream of water. If there was any 
gold, it would naturally stay in the pan after the dirt or 
gravel was washed away, because the gold was so much 



82 


GOLD DAYS 


heavier. The dirt with gold in it was called “pay dirt.” 
In “panning out,” the prospector would sometimes be 
made happy by finding a beautiful nugget in the bottom 
of his pan; but of course many, many times he would 
find no gold there at all. 

The miners often used the “cradle,” which was a kind 
of rocker that looked like a baby’s crib, for washing out 
the gold. Sometimes they had a kind of long box for 
this, which had the odd name of “long Tom.” 

You would be surprised to know how many different 
kinds of machines and tools people in the East made and 
sent to California to help get the gold. But most of 
these were of no use to the miner, and were finally 
thrown away. 

A great deal of water was needed in mining for gold. 
To get this water, many ditches had to be dug and many 
“flumes” built, some of them miles and miles in length. 
A few years later hydraulic mining became quite common. 
This means that the water brought in the long ditches, 
or flumes, was sent through big iron pipes or canvas 
hose against the hillside with such great force as to wash 
away the gravel or soil. In this way whole mountains 
were “sluiced” away for the sake of getting the little bits 
of gold that might be scattered through them. The 
gravel and soil were sent rushing and tumbling down by 
thousands of tons into the canyons and streams. But 
after a while hydraulic mining filled up the rivers with 
mud so badly that there were big floods after the heavy 
winter rains, and finally a law was made to stop that 
kind of mining. 


THE STORY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 83 

Some Big Nuggets. — Lumps of gold were called 
nuggets. As you might expect, miners were always on 
the lookout for these. A nugget was usually small, 
perhaps like a grain of corn; but many of them were 
larger, the size of a walnut, and sometimes a great deal 
larger than that. A few were so big that a boy could not 
lift one of them. Nuggets were found in all shapes, some 
of them smooth, but most of them very rough — what 
difference did that make, if they were pure gold? 

How exciting it must have been when one time a 
miner turned over a big rock and then picked up enough 
gold to fill his hat half full! One Sunday a man who was 
taking a walk in the hills near Sonora stubbed his toe 
against a large stone, which to his surprise he found to 
be a fine gold nugget. Another man was one day leading 
his mule hitched to a cart down the road when he struck 
a stone. He reached down to put it out of the way and 
found that it was a nugget worth thousands of dollars. 
People had been walking over it every day without 
noticing what it was! 

Once when a miner found that there was gold in the 
earthen floor of his own shanty, another miner near by 
dug up his cabin floor and took out twenty thousand 
dollars in nuggets and “dust.” Whenever a group of min¬ 
ers gathered around a stove in the winter time, you may 
be sure there were plenty of interesting stories about 
finding gold. But there were more times when the miner 
did not “strike it rich” than when he did. Many a man 
gave up mining altogether and became a farmer or a 
storekeeper. 


84 GOLD DAYS 

Sunday at the Mines. — When Sunday came, regular 
work at the “diggings” stopped. In the forenoon the 
miners did their week’s washing, mended their clothes, 
and did some cooking. Sunday was the day when letters 
were written to the folks at home, and when miners came 
to town from their “claims” to get their week’s supply of 
provisions. Sunday afternoon the miners had their 
sports, and lively times they had! There were games 
and races of all kinds. More than likely there was some 
fighting, too, before night. It would have been better 
for the miners if the wives or mothers of more of them 
had been with them in camp. 

Lack of Home Life. — At some of the camps the miners 
did not have a chance to see a lady or a little child for 
months at a time. Their own folks were far away, back 
in the East — “back in the States,” as they called it. 

One day the miners of a mountain town heard that 
some ladies’ bonnets had been brought to one of the 
stores. And — would you believe it? — there was a 
rush among the men to get down to that store, just to 
look at those bonnets! 

At another place a man took his wife and baby to 
church one Sunday morning. The rough miners had 
not seen a little baby for a long time. When it cried in 
church, those big men shed tears, for the crying of a 
baby seemed to them like the voice of an angel. 

Songs of the ’49-ers. — In the mining camp the violin 
was used a great deal for entertainment, and the men had 
some very lively fandangos all by themselves, wearing 
their rough boots and red flannel shirts. Sometimes a 


THE STORY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 85 

singer would come into camp; and if he pleased the 
miners with his singing, they would reward him with 
some small nuggets. 

Many odd songs were made up for the days of ’49, 
like “The Happy Miner,” “The California Emigrant,” 
and “The Shady Old Camp.” The most popular chorus 
of all was this: 

Oh, California! 

That’s the land for me! 

I’m going to Sacramento 
With my washbowl on my knee. 

The “Gold Fever.” — When a man back in New York 
or some other distant place heard wonderful stories about 
gold in California and became so excited about it that 
he wanted to leave everything and go West to hunt for 
the gold, people said he had the “gold fever.” All over 
the country, during the spring of that wonderful year 
1849, California gold was almost the only thing that a 
great many people talked about. 

Men by the thousand caught the “gold fever,” not 
only in the United States but also in nearly every other 
country, for within a short time the news about gold 
had gone clear around the world — it seemed as if every¬ 
body had heard of it. 

Every day there were fresh reports of new “finds” and 
stories of the lucky men who had “struck it.” Each 
miner was in a hurry to stake out his “claim,” and he lost 
no time in looking for “pay dirt.” When he heard of some 
prospector that had found a big nugget in another place, 


86 GOLD DAYS 

he was likely to leave everything but his pick, shovel, 
and pan in haste to get to the new “diggings” himself. 

Mining Camps. — Almost all the early miners were 
young men; there were very few American women in 
California in those days. Prospectors searched up and 
down and all through the mountains for gold. It was 
not long till there were dozens of mining camps in all 
directions from Coloma. Of course the camps in those 
days could not have nice, comfortable homes. The men 
were there to look for gold, and they could not pay much 
attention to houses and homes. They lived in rough 
shanties or in cheap tents. 

The names of some of those camps sound odd to us 
now — names like “Lazy Man’s Canyon,” “Wildcat 
Bar,” “Git-Up-and-Git,” and “You Bet.” Some of 
these early mining camps grew into towns and cities that 
are well known in California today; but the people left 
most of them after the gold was all taken out, so that 
many a mining camp that once contained thousands of 
busy men is now almost forgotten. 

The miners did not have many different kinds of food 
to eat, and of course they had to get along without fancy 
cooking. But they nearly always had beans, and for 
breakfast they were almost certain to have “flapjacks.” 
How they did miss the fresh fruits and vegetables! 

Mining Was Hard Work. — Hunting for gold was 
exciting, but it was also hard work. The prospector 
spent days and days tramping over the mountains try¬ 
ing to find the best claims. Mining with pick and shovel, 
digging ditches for the water, drilling in the solid rock, 


THE STORY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 87 

standing knee-deep in the cold water of the creek for 
hours at a time with the hot sun on their backs, and 
always trying to keep ahead of the others — such work 
as this demanded strong young men who were willing to 
stick to their task. And when they quit mining in the 
evening, they had to do their own work in camp. No 
wonder they did not do much housework! 

Gold Dust. — Most of the gold that was found was 
not in the form of nuggets, but in very small pieces, 
like beans or small seeds or thin flakes. This fine gold 
was called “dust.” The miner carried his dust in a 
buckskin bag and used it for money. A “pinch” between 
the thumb and first finger was a dollar’s worth; a tea¬ 
spoonful was an ounce, or sixteen dollars. A small wine 
glass held a hundred dollars, and a whole tumblerful 
was worth a thousand dollars. 

There was not much real money in California in the 
days of ’49, but everybody seemed to have some 
“dust,” and that took the place of money. 

High Prices. — The miners, and every one else in 
California, had to pay very high prices for the things they 
needed in those days. A pick or a shovel cost ten dol¬ 
lars; milk cost a dollar a pint; fresh eggs were ten dollars 
a dozen. It took a dollar to buy two potatoes or a dish 
of pork and beans. Some worn blankets were sold to 
poor Indians for their weight in gold, and bright-colored 
beads brought the same price. 

Miners Were Kind-Hearted Men. — The early Cali¬ 
fornia miners did not wear fine clothes, but they had 
kind hearts. No matter how busy they were, they were 


88 GOLD DAYS 

glad to help anybody who was in trouble, or a prospector 
who had been having bad luck. Most of them certainly 
had to work hard to get their gold, but they were not 
stingy with it when they saw anybody in need. 

In the days of ’49, men from all parts of the world 
were to be found at the diggings, but most of the miners 
were Americans. People of all kinds and all ages might 
be found among the gold hunters, but most of the pio¬ 
neers were strong young men who worked hard and 
tried to live for the right. Some of them afterward 
became great leaders in the Golden State. Joaquin 
Miller, who is called the “Poet of the Sierras,” wrote 
beautiful verses about — 

The days of old, 

The days of gold, 

The days of ’49. 


CHAPTER XIII 


WILLIAM LEWIS MANLY, A HERO OF 
DEATH VALLEY 

In giving a picture of the Days of ’49 we must not fail 
to tell the story of William Lewis Manly, a brave young 
hero of Death Valley and an honored California pioneer. 
We know this story well because Mr. Manly wrote a 
book called Death Valley in ’49, and because he lived for 
many years afterward as a neighbor in San Jose. 

A Case of “Gold Fever.” — Manly had already been 
thinking of going to the Far West, as he had been told 
that the government would give a man a good farm in 
Oregon if he would go out and settle there. He was well 
acquainted with pioneer life, for he had lived several 
seasons in the woods near Lake Michigan. 

When he heard of Marshall’s wonderful discovery in 
California, he took the gold fever. He said he had dreams 
at night about digging up yellow dust! Like thousands 
of others, he felt that the only thing to do was to start 
for the gold fields just as soon as possible. 

Early in the spring of 1849 he started for California. 
He did not have much money; so he drove a team of oxen 
and cows for another man to pay for his board. Anything 
to get a chance to go! His party expected to catch up 
with his friend Mr. Bennett and another party, who had 
started on ahead. 

Trouble on the Trail. — They had plenty of trouble 


90 


GOLD DAYS 

on the way. At one place they had to make a ferryboat 
out of one of the wagon beds and pull the other wagons 
across a river with it. At another place it took them all 
day to ford a sandy stream where there were dangerous 
quicksands. So much time was lost that it looked as if 
they could not possibly get through to California before 
winter. 

Down the Colorado River. — Manly and six com¬ 
panions decided they would try to save time by getting 
into a small ferryboat which they found, and floating 
down the Colorado River. Surely, they thought, that 
would take them to the Pacific Ocean. Was not that a 
bold thing, to try to do? Anyway, it proved to be a big 
mistake. 

As they floated down the swift stream day after day, 
the roaring river became larger and larger, and more and 
more dangerous. They had to give up the old ferryboat. 
Then they built canoes out of trees, and on they went 
with the current. At last, when a friendly Indian warned 
them that they could not reach the Pacific in their little 
canoes, Manly and his companions decided it would be 
best to try to reach Salt Lake on foot. 

Then what a long, hard journey they had! Can you 
imagine their joy when one day they found Mr. Bennett 
and the party they had missed just before starting? Of 
course they would now go on together. 

The Cut-Off. — It was so late by this time that they 
said they would take the southern route to Los Angeles, 
instead of the northern route to Sacramento. Manly 
and some of the others decided to try a cut-off toward 


THE STORY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA 91 

California in order to save time. But that was another 
terrible mistake. They did not know where they were. 
It was a strange country to them. They had no guide. 
Manly climbed to the tops of hills, trying to spy out the 
best way. Far in the distance he saw some high moun¬ 
tains covered with snow. Those were the Sierra 
Nevada. 

In Death Valley. —Their food supply was gone; the 
children cried for water when there was none to give them. 
Before they realized it, they were on the sandy floor of 
the desert that we now call Death Valley. None of them 
had ever seen that strange country, and not one of them 
knew what to expect. What would they do when all the 
oxen had been killed and eaten? Could they ever live 
to get through? 

Two Go for Relief. — Two young men were asked to 
go ahead on foot to try to find a settlement and some 
food, then bring relief to their friends, who were to stay 
in camp at a spring they had found. William Lewis 
Manly and John Rogers, two of the youngest and strong¬ 
est men of the party, were chosen to go on ahead. 

Did anybody ever face a harder task? Mile after 
mile they walked slowly on over the desert sands. Day 
after day it seemed the same. But when they thought 
of the women and children back in camp, they would 
not give up. They were already in California, but they 
did not know it! 

At last Manly and Rogers got through the desert. 
They saw some birds and other signs of life. Soon they 
came to a beautiful brook of pure water. Then from a 


92 GOLD DAYS 

hilltop they saw a wide meadow, with green grass, great 

oak trees, and hundreds of cattle. 

The Rescue.— When the two young men —brave 
and true — at last reached the camp of their friends back 
in the desert with food for them, one of the men threw 
up his arms over his head and shouted, “The boys have 
come! The boys have comer And Mrs. Bennett, whose 
children were in danger of starving, called to them, 
“Good boys! O, you have saved us all! God bless you 
forever! Such boys should never die.’ It had been 
twenty-six long days since the young men had gone out 
in search of relief. 

Safe in California. — All those that were left of the 
little party at last reached San Fernando Mission and 
the land of plenty early in the spring of 1850. It was 
four months since they had started on the cut-off, and 
almost a whole year since they had left Wisconsin for 
California. 

For more than fifty years after that William Lewis 
Manly lived in California; but I think his name and his 
deeds will live forever. 



CHAPTER XIV 


LIFE IN EARLY SAN FRANCISCO 

Before the Americans Came. — The real founder of 
San Francisco was a great Spanish soldier and trail 
maker named Anza, who led a party more than a 
thousand miles overland from the southern part of 
Arizona to the Golden Gate. There were more than two 
hundred men, women, and children in the party and a 
thousand or more of cattle, horses, and mules. It was 
a. truly wonderful journey, and it made Anza a great 
hero. This was in 1776, the very year of our American 
independence. 

The mission and the presidio were founded, and later 
there was the little village of Yerba Buena. San Fran¬ 
cisco was a very small place for many long years. Only 
a few years before California became American not more 
than fifty persons lived in the village. During those 
years Monterey was the principal town in California and 
the capital of the territory, which was then a part of 
Mexico. 

The Gold Rush. — But when California became Amer¬ 
ican, San Francisco began at once to grow more rapidly. 
At the time when Marshall was building the sawmill at 
Coloma, San Francisco had in all about 800 people, with 
200 houses. Then, after gold was discovered, men 
flocked to the new land of El Dorado from all directions. 
All the pioneers who came around the Horn or across 
93 


94 


GOLD DAYS 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 

Old San Francisco 

the Isthmus, as well as many others, came through the 
Golden Gate to San Francisco. Almost before one could 
believe it, the sleepy village was changed into a busy, 
rushing city. 

During one year alone (1850) more than 36,000 persons 
arrived by sea; and one-half of these came from foreign 
countries. Of course most of these men did not intend 
to stay in San Francisco, because they came to search 
for gold. But the city became a very lively place, with 
a steady stream of people coming and going all the time. 
Something new was happening on the streets every day. 

The men who came in those early days were young 
and strong, active and full of life. But they were so 




LIFE IN EARLY SAN FRANCISCO 95 

eager to make money that they did not take time to 
build strong houses or to see that everybody obeyed the 
laws. Many of the houses were really only cheap tents, 
and nearly all of them might catch fire and be burned up 
very quickly. There were several terrible fires, which 
destroyed the principal buildings of the city. After that, 
the people put up better buildings of brick and stone. 

Men of Many Races. — It seemed as though every 
nation in the whole world sent some of its men to Cali¬ 
fornia, and that all of them found their way to San 
Francisco. A great many came from England, France, 
and Germany; others came from Italy, Russia, Holland, 
Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Arabia, China, Sandwich 
Islands, Australia, Chile, and still other countries. 
There was life and activity on every side — surely San 
Francisco was then a gay, “go-ahead” city. Never be¬ 
fore was there such a mixture and variety of lively scenes 
in a city in so short a time. 

City of the West, 

Built up in a minute, 

Hurry and excitement, 

Moving all within it. 

Like a locomotive, 

Everybody going! 

City in a hurry, 

Filled to overflowing. 

The harbor seemed to be as busy as the city. Ships 
came in through the Golden Gate carrying flags from 
many different nations. It is hard to believe that in 
one day 451 vessels were lying along the San Francisco 


96 GOLD DAYS 

water front and in the harbor. It looked like a forest 

made of masts. 

Steamer Day. — Everybody in town knew when it 
was Steamer Day, which came twice a month. Before 
the steamer left with passengers and mail for New York, 
men hurried around to pay their bills or to send money 
back home, and hundreds of persons went down to the 
wharf to wave good-by to the friends who were leaving 
on the steamer. 

And when a steamer came into harbor with the mail 
from the East, there was also plenty of excitement. 
The news spread quickly over the town, and a crowd 
hurried to the water front to welcome the friends coming 
to California. Everybody was hoping to receive some 
of the letters and newspapers from home, so far away. 



PART VI: ALL ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA! 


CHAPTER XV 

COVERED WAGON, CLIPPER SHIP, AND 
STEAMBOAT 

As we have already learned, people came to California 
from nearly all parts of the world. But most of them 
were Americans, and they came from the United States. 

How did they get to California? 

There were three main ways of making the big trip. 
First, a great many traveled overland across the plains 
and the mountains; second, others sailed in sailing 
vessels or steamships down the Atlantic Ocean, around 
Cape Horn, and up the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco; 
third, many others sailed down to the Isthmus of Pan¬ 
ama, then, after crossing the Isthmus, took other vessels 
for California. 

On Foot and Horseback. — The very early hunters 
and trappers had to travel most of the time on foot — 
and they could walk! They learned the ways of the 
Indians and made themselves at home in the forest or on 
the plain, in the mountain storm or in the desert heat. 

But many of the trappers and traders also made good 
use of the saddle horse and the pack mule. These strong 
Americans, who were not afraid of anybody or anything 
on the plain or in the mountains, were the true pathfinders 
of the West. Is it any wonder that they prized their 
97 


98 


ALL ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA! 


faithful horses, and their rifles and hunting knives, their 
powder horns and bullet pouches? Who can say how 
important in making ready the paths to California was 
the beaver skin that these men were seeking? 

The Covered Wagon. — When more and more people 
began to go West, and men took their wives and children 
with them, they felt the need of big strong wagons as 
well as saddle horses and mules. And when thousands 
of gold hunters set out for California, you know how 
great trains of wagons could be seen slowly winding their 
way across the plains and still more slowly climbing up 
the steep mountain sides. And of course there were no 
automobiles then; so the heavy wagons were drawn by 
oxen, though sometimes there were mules instead of oxen. 
Each party had its saddle horses, too, and its cows, its 
friendly dog, and sometimes a small coop of chickens. It 
usually took four or five yoke of oxen to draw the family 
wagon, and there were often twenty-five or more wagons 
in one train. 

The pioneers had very good reasons for traveling in 
large parties. A train usually had the different members 
of a large family and their relatives, as well as some 
friends or neighbors. Often a train was made up of 
different persons or families from the same town. They 
felt a good deal safer when a large number of them were 
together; the Indians were not likely then to be so dan¬ 
gerous. But sometimes a train was so large that it had 
to be divided, because there was not enough feed and 
water for all the cattle and horses at the places where 
they wished to make camp. 


COVERED WAGON, SHIP AND STEAMBOAT 99 

In the open plain the covered wagon could be seen for 
miles as it moved lazily along. It was called the “Prairie 
Schooner.” My own mother came to California in a 
prairie schooner many, many years ago; and she told 
me about the wonderful trip. She said: “Our wagons 
were big and strong, and had stout bows, covered with 
thick white drilling; so there was a nice room in each 
wagon, as everything was clean and fresh and new.... 
Most of the wagons had the names of the owners, the 
place where they came from, and the place where they 
were bound, marked in large letters on the outside of 
the cover. We called it a good day’s drive if we went 
twenty miles, and a big drive if we went twenty-five 
miles; but in the mountains, and where we had streams 
to cross, we worked hard many times to make even five 
miles. Oh, the roads we passed over were terrible!... 
When we camped at night we would drive our wagons 
so that they would form a circle, and by putting the pole, 
or tongue, of each wagon upon the back axle-tree of the 
next, all around the circle, we had a pretty good corral. 
In this way it was easier to protect ourselves if the In¬ 
dians should attack us.” 

One afternoon mother’s little sister started off to look 
for some wood and got lost. When she did find the road, 
she walked back the wrong way and kept on going until 
she had walked five miles. There was great excitement in 
camp that evening; it looked as if the girl had been stolen 
away by Indians. But at last she was found on the road by 
some other pioneers, and it was nearly midnight when she 
was brought into camp, very tired, but all safe and sound. 


100 ALL ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA! 

If everything went well, it took about three and a 
half months to travel from the Missouri River to Sacra¬ 
mento in a covered wagon. But there was nearly always 
some kind of trouble on the road, so that more often it 
took five or six months to make the trip. There was a 
good deal of danger, too, and some of the travelers did 
not live to see California. Is it not easy to see why there 
was need of some way to make the trip more quickly? 

Around the Horn. — You have read how many of the 
gold hunters who came from New England and New York 
made the long trip to San Francisco by sailing in ships 
down the Atlantic Ocean, past South America, around 
Cape Horn, and up the Pacific Ocean to California. This 
trip often took more than six months, and of course there 
were sure to be many dangers. The ships used at first 
were slow and not well built for such a long, hard voyage. 

A new kind of vessel, called the clipper ship, soon took 
the place of many of the older ships. The clipper was one 
of the most beautiful ships ever built. This slender 
speedster had very tall masts and full sails. Her thin 
prow, or bow, cut the water like a knife-blade as she 
rushed along through the ocean as if she were a great fish. 
She might well be called the “queen of the seas.” And 
what fine names the clipper ships had! Herald of the 
Morning, Glory of the Sea, Wings of the Wind, Northern 
Light, Sea Witch: these were the pretty names some of 
them bore. 

But the very best of them all was the Flying Cloud. 
She has been called “the swiftest of all wind-blown 
vessels, the most beautiful of all sea-borne ships.” 


COVERED WAGON, SHIP AND STEAMBOAT 101 



Ewing Galloway 

The Old Clipper Ship Dauntless 

On one trip her Yankee captain dropped anchor in the 
harbor of San Francisco just eighty-nine days and eight 
hours after leaving New York. That was only one-half 
the time it took some of the old ships to make the trip. 
One time four clipper ships had a real race to see which 
could get to San Francisco first. 

There was plenty of lively fun on the ships, when the 
men were not seasick. There was the banjo and the 
violin, with singing and dancing, and many kinds of 
games. And when the ships stopped at some strange 






102 ALL ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA! 
port, the passengers could have donkey rides, or watch 
cock-fights, or see many new sights. 

But little by little the new steamships took the place 
of sailing vessels. The first of these came around to 
California just a little while after gold was discovered, 
and by the opening of the year 1850 twelve different 
steam vessels had come around the Horn. The truth is 
that so many people were eager to hunt for gold that all 
kinds of ships and steamers were crowded with eager 
passengers, bound for California. 

Across the Isthmus. — A large number of persons came 
to California by sailing to the Isthmus of Panama, in¬ 
stead of going around Cape Horn, then crossing the 
Isthmus from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side, and 
getting on other ships for San Francisco. 

Nothing could be more interesting than going across 
the Isthmus in long canoes, paddled by natives, then on 
mule-back, and part of the way on foot. There was a 
great jungle of strange trees and brakes, with bright 
flowers and birds and butterflies everywhere, and plenty 
of wild monkeys hopping about on the branches of the 
trees or swinging from the hanging vines. 

Sometimes the men had to wait at the Isthmus for 
weeks for a ship to take them to San Francisco. Many 
of them became sick, and some died there, far from 
home. And when a ship did come, there was often not 
nearly room enough for all who wanted to go to Cali¬ 
fornia; so the ship was sure to be crowded, and even 
then many had to wait till the next time. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE OVERLAND STAGECOACH AND THE 
PONY EXPRESS 

Six-Horse Coaches. — The prairie schooner was al¬ 
together too slow for the eager crowds that wanted to 
go to California. Who would think now of taking 
five or six long months to travel from Chicago to San 
Francisco or Los Angeles? There must be a quicker way. 

To save time people began to come in stagecoaches. 
A good coach was built very strong and could carry four¬ 
teen or more passengers. It was drawn by six fine large 
horses — and those stage horses certainly knew how to 
travel! It is said that the stage drivers of the Sierra 
Nevada were the best and most fearless in the whole 
country. They were called “knights of the rein.” They 
were kind to the passengers, and you may be sure they 
were proud of their fine horses. 

Hank Monk was one of the best drivers of them all. 
It must have been truly exciting to ride in his coach 
down the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Pla- 
cerville, then out into the Sacramento Valley. Down the 
rough mountain road dashed his six fine horses at a 
keen gallop, whirling around the sharp corners and wind¬ 
ing in and out among the heavy, slow-moving freight 
wagons. The rush and whirl of such a ride could not 
soon be forgotten. 


103 


104 


ALL ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA! 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 

Four-Horse Stagecoach 


More and more people came to ride on the Overland 
Stage. As it rolled across the wide plains and through 
the valleys, the blast of its horn cheered the heart of 
the pioneer, for it brought news from the old home he 
had left behind. The drivers took the best of care of 
the sacks of mail that were packed on the leather- 
covered “boot” of the coach. 

“Road Agents.” — In the early mining days a great 
deal of gold had to be sent from the mining camps to 
San Francisco, and sometimes across the mountains to 
the East. One single express company carried more 
than fifty million dollars’ worth of gold dust in five years. 









THE STAGECOACH AND PONY EXPRESS 105 

Some bad men thought they could get some gold with¬ 
out working for it. So once in a while they tried to rob 
the stage of its strong box. These robbers were called 
‘Toad agents”; really they were just bandits, of course. 
They were armed with pistols, and they sometimes made 
it dangerous to travel on the stages. But the stage 
drivers were also well armed and were very brave men, 
so that most of the time the travelers were well taken 
care of. Strangely enough, many of those “road agents” 
were very polite to the passengers they intended to rob, 
though they were ready to shoot any man who made a 
move to get away or who would not at once give them 
his money when they asked for it. 

“Ships of the Desert. ,, — A great many things had to 
be brought to California from other parts of the country. 
One day somebody asked the question: “If camels can 
carry heavy loads in Asia and Africa, why can’t they do 
the same in America? Why not use camels to bring big 
bundles and boxes of freight into this new country?” 
So this was tried. Camels were brought to America in 
steamships; and off they were started for California. 
The people of the quiet town of Los Angeles were surely 
surprised when they first saw a funny-looking parade of 
camels winding through the narrow streets. 

But the American drivers did not get along very well 
with these “ships of the desert”; they never really learned 
how to handle them properly, because they liked their 
saddle horses and pack mules so much better. The 
soldiers did not like the camels, either. So they were 
given up; some of them ran wild for a long time, and 


106 


ATT ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA! 



The Pony Express 

after a while most people forgot that camels had ever 
been brought to California, except in a circus. 

The Pony Express. — The quickest way of getting 
letters to California from the East before there were 
any railroads across the mountains was by what was 
called the Pony Express. Just think of going from 
the Missouri River to Sacramento in less than ten days 
when it took five or six months to make the trip in a 
covered wagon! But that’s what the Pony Express 
could do. 

Brave young men were picked out to ride on fast¬ 
running ponies and carry small sacks of mail. The rider 
kept his pony on a run till he reached a station, where he 
leaped to the ground, then up again on the back of a 




THE STAGECOACH AND PONY EXPRESS 107 

fresh pony that was already saddled and waiting, and 
off at a keen gallop. When Abraham Lincoln was made 
President, his great speech was carried by the Pony 
Express to the people of California. 

By that time men were building railroads, and natu¬ 
rally when steam cars began to run to California, there 
was no more use for the Pony Express. But the swift 
runner had helped to make ready for the iron horse, and 
the strong young riders who did their work so well will 
not be forgotten. How the “iron horse’’ came to replace 
the flesh and blood horse we shall see in the next pages. 


CHAPTER XVII 

THE COMING OF THE IRON HORSE 

The Great Need. — As soon as our state became so 
important, one thing that was needed very badly was a 
safer and a quicker way of traveling from the East to 
California and from California back to the East again. 
You have seen how, in the hurry of the gold days, and 
after that time, the covered wagon and the stagecoach 
were altogether too slow. The Pony Express, of course, 
could not take passengers, but even for carrying letters 
people wanted something that was faster and cheaper 
than the Pony Express. 

There was one thing to do — to have a railroad clear 
across the country, from the East right into California. 
But could a steam railroad ever be built across the Rocky 
Mountains and the Sierra Nevada? Nothing like that 
had ever been done before. And then, think how much 
it would cost, and the trouble with the Indians, and how 
long it would take! 

The “Big Four.” — People talked and talked, and 
some men planned and planned for a railroad. There 
were all kinds of questions. What would be the best 
route for it? Where was all the money coming from? 
Should the government help in the great work of build¬ 
ing the road? 

The one man who really showed that a railroad could 
be built across the Sierra Nevada Mountains and who 
108 



THE COMING OF THE IRON HORSE 109 

studied carefully about the best route was Theodore D. 
Judah, a famous engineer. The big leaders who took hold 
of the task of really building the Pacific Railroad were four 
California pioneers — Leland Stanford, who was at one 
time Governor, Charles Crocker, Collis P. Huntington, 
and Mark Hopkins. They were called the “Big Four. ,, 
Stanford was made president of the railroad company. 

Central Pacific and Union Pacific. — The eastern part 
of the railroad started at Omaha and was built toward 
the west. This was the Union Pacific. The western 
part started at Sacramento and was built toward the 
east. This was the Central Pacific. So they were build¬ 
ing from both ends toward the middle at the same time. 
When the two parts should come together, the railroad 
would be completed. Most of the workers on the Union 
Pacific were Irish; most of those on the Central Pacific 
were Chinese, for at that time there were a great many 
Chinese in California. 

How the Work Was Completed. — Building the rail¬ 
road was like a big race, or game — the Irish against the 
Chinese. On one single day between daylight and dark 
the Central Pacific men laid more than ten miles of rail¬ 
road track. They had good reason for working fast; for 
the more miles they built, the more help the railroad got 
from the government. 

It was in the spring of 1869 when the great work was 
completed. On the last day Stanford drove the golden 
spike which connected the rails. The Union Pacific 
locomotive drew its train slowly over the place where the 
golden spike was driven, and back again. Then the 


110 ALL ABOARD FOR CALIFORNIA! 

Central Pacific locomotive did the same thing. A tele¬ 
gram was sent to President Grant at Washington which 
said: “Sir, we have the honor to report that the last 
rail is laid, the last spike is driven. The Pacific Rail¬ 
road is finished.” From that time on, it was really one 
big railroad on which passengers might ride in cars all 
the way from New York to California in less than a 
week. That was not much like the prairie schooner, 
was it? 

After the railroad came, there was little need for the 
slow-going covered wagons. Even the six-horse stage¬ 
coaches were badly beaten in the race with the iron horse. 
People began to find it easy to come to California; so 
on they came by the thousand, traveling on the overland 
railroad into the Golden State. 

Already several short railroads had been built in Cali¬ 
fornia, and more and more roads were being built all the 
time. Now it seems hard for us to think of the time when 
there were no such things as railroads. 


PART VII: THE GOLDEN STATE 


CHAPTER XVIII 
SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 

In 1930 there were forty-seven cities in California 
each of which had more than 10,000 persons in it. Eleven 
of these had more than 50,000 each. They were: Los 
Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Long 
Beach, Sacramento, Berkeley, Pasadena, Glendale, San 
Jose and Fresno. If we should count all the cities, towns, 
and villages of our big state, we should find several 
hundreds of them. 

There is something about each one of these places 
that makes boys and girls glad that they live there; 
and yet no two of them are exactly alike. In this book 
we must not try to describe all the interesting places 
or even to mention their names. But we must tell about 
a few of them, and ask the boys and girls to find out 
what they can about some of the others. 

Los Angeles. — When Los Angeles was founded by the 
Spaniards a hundred and fifty years ago, no one could 
have dreamed it would ever become a big world city. 
Even after gold was discovered by Marshall, there were 
fewer than 2,000 persons in the whole town. Very few 
Americans lived there. For a long time the place was a 
sleepy little village. 


in 


112 


THE GOLDEN STATE 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 


Los Angeles, Seventh and Hill Streets, 1907 
Looking west on Seventh Street. 

But in 1876 there was an awakening, for it was then 
that the railroad reached Los Angeles. After that it 
did not seem as if San Francisco and Sacramento were so 
far away, for people could go on the train instead of 
going on the slow stagecoach. Also people then began 
coming to Los Angeles from the East, and the place was 
rapidly changing into a real American city. 

When the beach towns of Wilmington and San Pedro 
became a part of Los Angeles, it became a seaport city. 
The way the harbor was made at a place where many 







SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 


113 



Security-First National Bank, Los Angeles 

Los Angeles, Seventh and Hill Streets Today 


Looking west on Seventh Street. 

people thought there could never be a good harbor was 
a big surprise to everybody. 

In a very short time Los Angeles has linked southern 
California with the nations of the world, and now great 
ocean steamships, carrying freight and passengers — 
some sailing under American flags and others under the 
flags of other nations — make regular stops at the 
harbor. The amount of business is growing all the time. 
Immense cargoes of lumber come in from northern ports, 
and huge shipments of oil are sent out every month. 
But Los Angeles is also a leading center for air travel. 











114 THE GOLDEN STATE 

What do you suppose the covered-wagon pioneers would 
think if they could visit the busy airports at Glendale 
and Alhambra? 

Water is brought all the way from Owens Valley to 
Los Angeles in a big pipe, or aqueduct, and as the city 
keeps on growing still more water will be brought all 
the way from the Colorado River. Thus there will be 
enough water, power, and fuel to last for many years to 
come. This helps to explain why there are so many 
factories and mills, and why more and more people 
come to southern California. And we must not forget 
the beautiful churches, and the many fine schools, all 
the way from the kindergartens to the University of 
California at Los Angeles and the University of South¬ 
ern California. Of course no one could have dreamed of 
motion pictures in the old days of the Mexican pueblo; 
yet Hollywood, which is a part of Los Angeles, has become 
the chief place in all the world for the movies and the 
talkies. 

The Los Angeles that we know is the home of far 
more than a million people. It is the largest city of all 
California. Besides the Americans, a good many per¬ 
sons who live here came from different countries, such 
as Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, England, Russia, 
and still other places. In some of the schools there are 
children belonging to families that came from more than 
a dozen different countries, but all these children are 
taught that they should love and respect the American 
flag. 

Los Angeles has been called the “Wonder City of the 




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Hm Hifmn 

i s ** *i n #f ir | 

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'««« H*«l*«l 

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City Hall, Los Angeles 









116 


THE GOLDEN STATE 



Californians, Inc. 

Downtown San Francisco 

From the Ferry Building to the skyscrapers of the financial district. 

West.” It has become one of the great cities of the 
world and growing larger all the time. 

San Francisco. — San Francisco is the famous city 
by the Golden Gate. No other large city in the whole 
country has had quite the same variety of experiences as 
this city of St. Francis. Many are the trials and troubles 
it has seen. Chief of them all was the great fire and 
earthquake of 1906. But it has risen above all these 
troubles, and in triumph has become one of the leading 
cities of the United States. As it has grown big and 
strong, the people who live there have learned to love 
it more and more. 

Golden Gate Park, covering more than a thousand 




SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 


117 


acres of land, is now one of the most beautiful parks, 
not only of America but of the world. It has a splendid 
museum, concert grounds for music in the open air, a 
find collection of animals and birds from many lands, and 
a wealth of wonderful shrubs and flowers bordering the 
wide, smooth driveways. 

San Francisco has a handsome Civic Center, built 
entirely since 1906, which contains the City Hall, the 
Auditorium, the Public Library, and the State Building, 
all grouped around a central Plaza. There are a great 
many tall buildings in the city, making a remarkable 
sky line; people call it the “New York of the West.” 
There are too many other interesting things even to 
mention here: the bay, with ferryboats and vessels of 
all kinds always moving about; the ong water front, 
where ocean steamships and sailing vessels come from 
all parts of the world; the Ferry Building, with its tower 
clock, at the foot of Market Street, which extends from 
the water front through the heart of the city; the steep 
hills — Telegraph, Rincon, Nob Hill and the rest— 
once nothing but sand dunes; Chinatown, which has 
attracted many visitors ever since early days —these 
and other things woven into the romantic story make 
San Francisco seem as though it had a soul of its own, a 
city “loved around the world and by its own people best 
of all.” Surely those who live there today have a good 
right to feel proud of the history of their city and of its 
importance to the entire Pacific Coast. 

Serene, indifferent to fate, 

She sits beside the Golden Gate. 


118 THE GOLDEN STATE 

Oakland. — A glance at the map shows that not many 
miles from San Francisco are several other important 
cities. Across the bay to the east are Oakland, Berkeley, 
Alameda, and Richmond. All these and still others 
taken together give us what is called the “Bay District,” 
one of the chief centers of population for all western 
North America. Oakland is the third city in size in 
California. It was not founded by Spaniards, but is a 
real American city. In 1860 it was a mere village of 
1,500 people, but when the railroad came, it began to 
grow rapidly, until by 1930 it had a population of 
almost 300,000. 

Some special features of Oakland are its towering 
City Hall, beautiful Lake Merritt, two museums with 
their collections of birds, animals, and other interesting 
things, and the fine driveways on the tree-covered hill- 
slopes just beyond the city limits. Far-famed Mills 
College for girls is at the edge of the city. Every traveler 
has heard about the Oakland Mole, extending far out 
into the bay, where the Southern Pacific Railroad ends. 
This shortens the trip on the big ferry steamboats to San 
Francisco. During the last twenty years the water front 
has become very important, and this fact has made Oak¬ 
land a leading city in commerce as well as a fine home 
city. 

Berkeley. — The principal college town of all Califor¬ 
nia is Berkeley, which is only a few miles from Oakland. 
Here the University of California was founded in 1868. 
It has grown so fast that it is now one of the largest 
universities in the world. Besides the many buildings 



SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 119 

on the lovely campus, there is the great open-air theater 
and the huge “bowl” where big football games are played. 
The campus itself is a dream of beauty, with its great 
spreading live oaks, its hills and dells, lawns, and flowers, 
reaching from the city itself up to the very mountain side. 

Berkeley is more than a college town. In forty years 
its population increased from little more than a village 
to a city of more than 80,000. Its growth has been a 
good deal like the growth of California as a whole. 

Sacramento. — The capital city of California is Sac¬ 
ramento, located on the Sacramento River, about eighty 
miles northeast of San Francisco. Here, you remember, 
Sutter s Fort was founded in 1839; now the Fort has 
been rebuilt and has become completely surrounded by 
the city. In the exciting days of the Gold Rush Sacra¬ 
mento played a leading part in the history of California. 
Here you are in the very heart of the “Forty-Niner” 
country. The first railroad in the state was between 
Sacramento and Folsom; the route of the Pony Express 
and later of the Central Pacific Railroad ended at Sac¬ 
ramento. 

It is in Sacramento that the Governor of California 
makes his home, and here is where the senators and the 
assemblymen from all parts of the state meet to make our 
laws. Capital Park, with its smooth lawns, its bright 
flowers, and wonderful trees, is one of the most beautiful 
parks you can find in any city. At the center is the 
Capitol Building. If you will climb up the winding 
stairs to its dome, you can look out over the country for 
miles and miles in all directions. 


120 


THE GOLDEN STATE 


Sacramento, with a population now of 100,000, lies 
in the midst of a great region of farms and orchards, 
where almost every kind of grain and fruit and vegetable 
is grown. Northern California is famous for its live 
stock, for its poultry industry, and its dairying. Looking 
to the east, one beholds the Sierra Nevada, with its 
wondrous Lake Tahoe and Donner Lake, and the early 
trails of the gold hunters. Turning the eye west¬ 
ward, there is seen the Coast Range, with Mount 
Tamalpais standing like a guard above San Francisco 
Bay. 

Sacramento is not only the capital of the state; it is 
also the largest city in northern California. The State 
Fair is held here every year. This has become one of the 
leading fairs of the country. The fine exhibits gathered 
there from every part of California are a big help in 
teaching the people what nature and man can do work¬ 
ing together in a wonderful state. 

San Diego. — Of all the settlements made by white 
men in California, San Diego has the honor of being the 
oldest, for here it was that in 1769 the first mission and 
the first presidio were founded by Father Serra and Cap¬ 
tain Portola. Here, as we may say, is the spot “where 
California began.” But the beautiful city as we know it 
now is one of the most modern in the state. 

Until 1860 San Diego remained a little village, but 
since 1900 it has been one of the fastest-growing cities 
in the United States. Its population reached almost 
150,000 by 1930. People who wish a mild climate, 
without much change from summer to winter, find 



SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 


121 



Street Scene, San Diego 


special charm in this city, which looks out upon one of 
the best natural harbors that any city can boast. 

To a person flying over San Diego in an airplane it 
looks as if the city had been build around a lovely park — 
and this is really what happened. Balboa Park has 
1,400 acres, and it is famous for the great Cabrillo 
Bridge, the Indian Village, the outdoor pipe organ, its 
museums, and its trees and flowers. It was here that 
the grand Panama-California Exposition was held in 
1915 and 1916, bringing visitors from all parts of the 
world. Beautiful buildings used in the Fair are still in 
the Park. 






Lily Pond in Balboa Park, San Diego 


•SiW^vj Safe 














SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 123 

The city has become a wonderful place for amusements 
on ocean, bay, or beach, or in the near-by mountains, or 
at the border of old Mexico. Six different beaches may 
easily be reached. Why do you think Mission Beach is 
called the “Coney Island of the Southland”? Directly 
across the quiet bay is Coronado, one of the most famous 
of all seaside resorts. 

San Diego is known as the “Cradle of Western Avia¬ 
tion.” It was from this city that Lindbergh started 
on his wonderful flight in 1927 to New York, then across 
the Atlantic Ocean to Paris. The end of the “Old Span¬ 
ish Trail,” starting in far-away Florida, is at San Diego. 
Here also is the end of the “Broadway of America,” 
starting in New York. To the east of San Diego County, 
after crossing the mountains, you come to Imperial 
Valley, many feet below the level of the sea, which has 
been so wonderfully changed from desert sand to a 
garden by the toil of brave men and the use of water from 
the Colorado River. 

San Jose. — Santa Clara Valley is both beautiful and 
productive. It has been called the “Valley of Heart’s 
Delight.” Its chief city is San Jose, which, as we have 
seen, was the first pueblo to be founded in California. 
That makes it now more than a hundred and fifty years 
old. At present it has a population of about 60,000. 

Three miles west of San Jose is the town of Santa 
Clara, where Santa Clara Mission was founded in 1777, 
and where Santa Clara University is now located. The 
Alameda is the name of the lovely avenue between San 
Jose and Santa Clara. An automobile ride of twenty-five 


124 


THE GOLDEN STATE 

miles takes one to Lick Observatory, with its big tele¬ 
scope, on the top of Mount Hamilton. Traveling north¬ 
west by train or automobile for forty-five miles, passing 
Palo Alto, Stanford University, Redwood City, and 
Menlo Park, and circling around an arm of the bay, one 
reaches San Francisco. 

There are many factories in San Jose where different 
things are made, but what makes it more famous is that 
it has become one of the big fruit-canning and dried- 
fruit-packing centers of the country. Almost all kinds 
of fruits and berries are canned, and different kinds of 
jams, jellies, fruit salads, and fruit juices are made by 
the carload. With its fine schools, including the State 
College, its churches, and its beautiful surroundings, we 
may say that San Jose is the home of fruit and flowers 
and happy people. 

Stockton. — The city of Stockton is in the center of 
the great valley of California, eighty miles east of San 
Francisco. All around the city there is a fruitful country, 
where thousands of farmers have made their homes. 
More farm machines are made in Stockton than in any 
other city in the state. The place has grown from a 
pioneer town into a city of about 50,000 people. 

The leaders of Stockton have made plans for a deep 
water channel, so that big ocean ships will be able to sail 
from the San Francisco Bay into the San Joaquin River 
and right up to the city. Going west, it will be a voyage 
of about ninety miles to the Golden Gate. If you travel 
east by automobile or stage, you quickly come into what 
is called the Mother Lode country, where there were so 


SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 125 

many rich mines in the gold days, and where Bret Harte 
and Mark Twain wrote some of their interesting stories. 
If you go on into the Sierra Nevada about California, 
you come to some of the grandest sights in the world, 
such as the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Trees. 
And now the city of Stockton, in addition to its fine schools 
and comfortable homes, has the College of the Pacific, 
which makes the people who live there more proud of 
their city than ever. 

Fresno. — Farther to the south, in the very heart of 
San Joaquin Valley, about midway between Stockton 
on the north and Bakersfield on the south, is the city of 
Fresno, the center of what has become the world’s 
greatest fruit-producing district. It was not until after 
the railroad came into the valley that Fresno began to 
look like a city at all, for in 1880 there were only about 
one thousand people in the village. In less than fifty 
years the population grew to more than fifty thousand. 

For a good many years thousands of acres of waving 
fields of wheat could be seen in every direction from 
Fresno. But after the farmers had obtained plenty of 
irrigation water from the mountain streams, they began 
to grow more fruit and vegetables. Fresno County has 
more irrigated land than any other of the fifty-eight 
counties of California. In the whole world there is no 
other city that handles so much dried fruit as Fresno. 

Besides the excellent public schools, there is the large 
Fresno State College. Roeding Park, with more than 
six hundred varieties of trees and shrubs, has gained 
fame for its beauty and as a fine playground for the 


126 


THE GOLDEN STATE 



/. Walter Collinge, Santa Barbara 

Santa Barbara County Court House 
people all the year round. Three national parks are 
within one hundred miles of Fresno. These are Yosem- 
ite, Sequoia, and General Grant, with its grand Kings 
Canyon country. 

Santa Barbara. — One of the world’s most charming 
cities is fair Santa Barbara, where the early presidio was 
built and where, a few years later, Mission Santa Bar¬ 
bara was founded. The site of the Mission was selected 
by Father Junipero Serra. The beautiful church, with 
its thick-walled towers, long corridors, and tile roof, 
has served as a model for most of the fine buildings of 
Santa Barbara. 

There are houses with large inner courts, open to the 
blue sky; there are wide lawns, with shapely trees and 
brilliant flowers and shrubs; there is a certain passage- 








SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 


127 



“Old Spanish Days” Fiesta, Santa Barbara 
way called “A Street in Spain”; and in the climate and 
surrounding scenery there is a charm and beauty not 
surpassed in Spain itself. On one side of the city is the 
ocean shore line looking out toward the Channel Islands, 
and on the other the glorious mountains, where men of 
wealth have built elegant homes for themselves. 

Every year, for a period of three days in the month of 
August, a grand fiesta called “Old Spanish Days” is 
held in Santa Barbara. Music is heard from early morn 
till late at night. Thousands of people of all ages, 
dressed as in old Spanish days — some of them on horse¬ 
back, many on foot —stroll up and down the gaily 










128 


THE GOLDEN STATE 



An Entry in Tournament of Roses, January, 1931 

decorated streets, pausing now and then to look at the 
folk-dancing or at the passing parade. Everybody en¬ 
joys the freedom and homelike feeling that added so 
much to the romance of the Days of the Dons. We are 
not surprised that such people make the boast that in 
Santa Barbara California is at its best. 

Pasadena. — Another truly modern city of Califor¬ 
nia, and one of the most lovely cities of beautiful homes 
of any state is Pasadena, situated a dozen miles east 
of Los Angeles, almost at the foot of Mount Wilson and 
Mount Lowe. From a small town of less than 5,000 peo¬ 
ple in 1890 it became a city of more than 76,000 in 1930. 






SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 


129 



Mt. Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena 

Pasadena may be entered over the great curved bridge 
high over Arroyo Seco; a more beautiful bridge it would 
be hard to find anywhere. One of the avenues in Alta- 
dena is called the “Street of the Christmas Trees.” 
Can you guess why it was given such a name? 

No city is more famous for its sunshine and roses than 
Pasadena. The Tournament of Roses has been held 
here every New Year’s Day for more than forty years. 
The wonderful parade, with its scores of gorgeous floats 
containing millions of blossoms, is now seen by more 
than half a million people every year. These people 
come from all over the country, especially from the 



130 THE GOLDEN STATE 

eastern states where the winter is very cold. But Pasa¬ 
dena is also a city of wonderful homes; and where could 
more charming homes be found? 

Not far from the city, in the midst of a fruitful 
valley, stands San Gabriel Mission, one of the first 
to be founded by Father Serra. At San Marino 
there is the splendid Henry E. Huntington Library and 
Art Gallery, while a mile above the city, on the top of 
the mountain, is the great Mount Wilson Observatory, 
where learned men are always searching for the secrets 
of the stars. 

Long Beach. — Twenty-miles south of the center of 
Los Angeles, looking out upon the Pacific Ocean, is Long 
Beach, one of the surprise cities of California. It is hard 
to believe that a little village of fewer than six hundred 
persons could in so short a time as forty years become a 
city of more than 142,000, yet that is the story of Long 
Beach. What was a quiet beach resort even thirty years 
before was in 1930 a great commercial city. 

This young city has “seven miles of golden beach,” 
which makes it an all-the-year-round playground for 
thousands of people. For their pleasure it has built the 
huge Rainbow Pier and the big Auditorium. There are 
all kinds of water sports along the water front and in 
Alamitos Bay — surf bathing, swimming, rowing, sail¬ 
ing, yachting, and about everything else you can t hink 
of. Then there is the lovely Amusement Zone, with its 
hundreds of places of play and entertainment. 

Signal Hill oil field, whose many tall derricks can be 
seen for miles from any direction, is one of the largest 


SOME CALIFORNIA CITIES 


131 



oil fields to be found anywhere. Besides this there are 
several hundred industries of different kinds in Long 
Beach. A remarkable idea is the plan for connecting the 
harbor with Los Angeles harbor by means of a great 
breakwater, in such a way as to make one big harbor 
instead of two. The greater harbor will help all South¬ 
ern California as well as Los Angeles and Long Beach. 

Glendale. — Surrounded by hills and mountains, to 
the north of Los Angeles and less than half an hour away 
by automobile or electric car, is Glendale, the youngest 
of the young cities of California. But between 1920 and 
1930 it grew so fast that it was called the “Fastest Grow- 









132 THE GOLDEN STATE 

ing City in America.” In 1910 it was a village of 2,700; 

in 1930 it was a city of 63,000! 

Glendale has many beautiful homes and fine schools, 
and is known for its straight, wide business streets. 
Near by are the sister cities of Alhambra and Eagle 
Rock, and the communities of the San Fernando Valley. 


CHAPTER XIX 


HOW CALIFORNIA HELPS TO FEED 
THE NATION 

We have already learned that the California Missions 
had gardens, and that in these gardens the Spaniards 
grew oranges, lemons, olives, figs, and other fruits. But 
this was only a beginning of fruit growing in California. 
Since the time of the Missions, the Americans have made 
the Golden State the best in the whole country in the 
raising of fruits and vegetables. Many of the good things 
of a Thanksgiving dinner in far-off New England and of 
a Christmas dinner down in Virginia now come from 
sunny California. 

Oranges. — Many years ago Mrs. Eliza Tibbetts, of 
Riverside, received two small orange trees that had been 
brought from South America. She took such good care 
of these trees that they grew fast and soon began to bear 
bright golden fruit. These were our first Washington 
Navel orange trees. 

More oranges are now grown in California than any¬ 
where else, and more than half of them all are navel 
oranges. They are sent to all parts of this country, and 
even to some other countries. Who does not know how 
good our California oranges are? 

Other Fruits. — Most of the olives of the country are 
grown in the Golden State. And so it is with figs, pears, 
peaches, apricots, almonds, walnuts, and prunes. It 
133 


134 


THE GOLDEN STATE 



Orange Grove 


makes a true Californian feel proud to know that his 
state stands at the head of all the states in producing 
more than twenty different crops that grow from the 
soil. There are fine apples from hillside and valley, and 
from the heated desert there are dates as sweet as honey. 
Almost every kind of fruit that can be thought of is 
grown somewhere in California. 

Grapes and Raisins. — Large and beautiful vineyards 
are also to be found here, with grapes of many kinds. 
Like the oranges, California grapes are sent to all parts 
of the country for people to eat and enjoy. 

No other place produces so many raisins. If you are 



CALIFORNIA HELPS FEED THE NATION 135 



Date Garden, Coachella Valley 

traveling in England, or Germany, or even Turkey, it 
will not be hard to find little packages of raisins that 
came all the way from Fresno. 

Grain and Vegetables. — After the early gold days 
American farmers planted great fields of wheat in the 
central valley of California. These fields produced enough 
for millions of people. And besides the wheat, there were 
other fields of barley and oats; and besides the central 
valley, there were the smaller valleys and the sloping 
hillsides in all parts of the state. 

Then later, when we learned how to save the water 
and to irrigate the crops, great fields of rice were planted 









136 


THE GOLDEN STATE 



Orchard in Bloom, Santa Clara Valley 

in the Sacramento Valley, and fields of cotton were 
planted in the San Joaquin Valley. 

It is the same with all kinds of vegetables and berries 
and melons. For lettuce and cantaloupes there is no 
place like Imperial Valley, which used to be a desert. 
Trainloads of fine watermelons come from Lodi and 
Stockton, and Persian melons and cantaloupes from Tur¬ 
lock. On the islands where the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin rivers come together, is to be found one of the 
biggest vegetable gardens of the world, where tons and 
tons of asparagus, celery, spinach, beans, and other 
things are grown. Some of the straight rows of asparagus 
plants are more than a mile long. 




CALIFORNIA HELPS FEED THE NATION 137 

Of course there are other vegetables, like tomatoes, 
cucumbers, green peas, potatoes, onions, squash, cauli¬ 
flower, carrots, and beets. Fresh vegetables, as well as 
fruits, are canned by the ton every year. These good 
things from California may be found on the dinner tables 
of thousands of persons all over the country in the winter 
time as well as in the summer. 

Nowhere else in all the world can you find a place like 
California the Golden, for good things to eat from fields 
and orchards, vineyards and gardens; nor when we are 
thinking of good food must we forget the different kinds 
of meat, such as beef, mutton, and pork, nor the fish, nor 
the eggs, nor all the milk, butter, and cheese that come 
from our state. 

Nature has given us the wonderful gifts of soil and 
water and power and sunshine. With these gifts it is 
possible for strong men, who work hard every year, to 
plant and harvest the rich crops with which California 
helps to feed the nation. 


CHAPTER XX 


CARING FOR THE FUTURE 

Nature has been a kind Earth Mother to us. She has 
made many wonderful and beautiful gifts to California. 
That is why it is such a pleasant place in which to live. 

Besides the large amount of gold and other minerals, 
there are the great forests, the water of the rivers and 
lakes and the ocean, the fertile soil, and still other things 
that make people proud of California. If we were asked 
which of all these is the best gift, we should have to say 
we could not tell; they are all so good, and there is need 
for them all. We wonder if any other state in the whole 
country can have so many fine gifts of Nature as Cali¬ 
fornia! 

The Minerals. —After Marshall made his discovery 
at Coloma, people came flocking from everywhere in 
search of the gold of California. Even yet, after so long 
a time, a great deal of gold is mined every year in the 
state. 

Besides gold there is enough of other minerals, like 
silver, copper, iron, and lead, to last for a good many 
lifetimes if people will only use them carefully. But 
these things must not be wasted. 

For a good many years the most important of all our 
minerals has been not gold or silver, but oil. It is worth so 
much that it is sometimes called “black gold.” You 
know it is oil that makes hundreds of railroad trains run 
138 


CARING FOR THE FUTURE 


139 



Mariposa Big Tr^es 

and many a steamship go, and it is from the oil that we 
get all the gasoline for our automobiles. What do you 
think would happen if all the oil were some day used 
up? Would not that be terrible? We must learn how 
to save more of it for the people that will be here after 
we are gone; for when it is all used up, men will not 
know how to make more of it. 

The Forests. — California has some of the most won¬ 
derful forests in all the world. The Big Trees are the 
largest of all living things. And they are also the oldest. 
Who could ever forget a happy ride along the Redwood 
Highway, among the groves of giant trees that seem to 



140 


THE GOLDEN STATE 


reach to the very sky? What a treat it is to look up at 
the Mariposa Big Trees or at their brothers in other 
groves? The forest kings and princes love to dwell in 
California. What is more beautiful than a tall, straight 
fir tree, or a spreading oak, or a giant sugar pine, with 
its long cones hanging down from the upper branches? 

But have you ever been in the mountains where there 
has been a forest fire? What a sad sight is that! And 
is it not sad to think that thousands and thousands of 
beautiful trees have been burned to death, and that the 
beauty of the forest where the fire swept through has 
been spoiled? 

The forests and the brush are needed to hold back the 
water after there has been a storm, and to keep it until 
it can be used, little by little, in the valleys below. We 
should do everything we can to prevent forest fires and 
to save our wonderful forests. Many young redwood, 
pine, fir, and cedar trees are now being planted every 
year, and they will be a help to the forests in years to 
come. 

In California there are many national forests, all care- 
full guarded for the pleasure and use of the people. These 
places are great summer playgrounds for campers and 
tourists. More and more of them come to these beauti¬ 
ful playgrounds every year. A lovely forest is one of 
Nature's best gifts to man. 

Water. — All the water comes from the ocean. The 
sun and the air cause very tiny drops of water to leave 
their ocean home and float through the sky in every 
direction on their long journeys till they become rain or 


CARING FOR THE FUTURE 141 

hail or snow, and fall upon the earth. Then they form 
little brooks, which flow together to form larger streams 
and rivers, and at last they find their way back to the 
ocean, when they are ready to start again on another 
long journey. 

When rain and snow fall upon the mountain forest, 
the water is held until it has time to soak into the earth. 
Farther down the mountain side it comes bubbling out 
in some spring, or it forms a beautiful stream. 

Without water there would be no forests, no gardens, 
no green grass or lovely wild flowers, no fields of ripening 
grain. We, ourselves, could not live without water. 

In California there is need for all the water that comes 
from the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range Moun¬ 
tains as well as the water that falls as rain in the great 
valley between. It is needed to make the crops grow, 
to keep our lawns green, to make electric power for 
lights and machines; and —best of all —pure cold 
water is the best drink for all the people. In some parts 
of the state it does not rain very much; so much the more 
is the water needed there. 

The Soil. — The soil is far more important to us than 
gold. “Gold, silver, or precious stones cannot keep us 
alive.” The real wealth of the world is the soil. In the 
great fertile fields of California much more is produced 
than the owners can use for themselves. That leaves a 
part of it for the people who do other kinds of work, or 
who live far away. 

If people wish to have plenty and remain prosperous, 
they must take good care of the soil and raise good crops 


142 


THE GOLDEN STATE 


of grain and fruit and live stock. All our comforts, and 
everything needed for our food, clothing, and shelter, 
come in the first place from the soil. We could get along 
without a great many good things if we had to, but we 
could not get along without land. We must have it for 
our homes, for raising cattle, and for growing crops. 
From it all the minerals come; on it all the forests grow. 

The Earth Mother has given us a state that is big and 
beautiful and filled with rich gifts. We have our moun¬ 
tains and our valleys, our forests and our flowers, our 
minerals and our water. There is good use for all these, 
and we should be glad to help Nature take care of them. 
Then they will last the people for many, many years. 


CHAPTER XXI 

WHAT MAKES CALIFORNIA GREAT? 

We have learned something about the story of Cali¬ 
fornia, and we have seen that it is now a big, wonderful 
state. 

When we think of its high mountains and wide valleys, 
its winding rivers and long ocean coast line, we know that 
Nature has been a kind mother. There is no pleasanter 
land to live in anywhere. Let us see if we can decide 
what it is that really makes California great. 

Happy Days in Old California. — After many, many 
years when the only people living here were the Indians, 
Spanish explorers and discoverers came from far-away 
Europe and found this beautiful land. Men with kind 
hearts built the missions to help the Indians live higher 
lives, and other Spaniards came to build presidios and 
pueblos. Then there were the big ranches, with their 
cattle, sheep, and horses, where the people lived in peace 
and happiness in old California. 

California Becomes American. — But before very long 
strangers began to come to spy out the land, and bold 
Americans crossed the mountains into this new-found 
land. Some of these bold men were sea captains, and 
some were trappers and traders. Then pioneers like 
John Bid well came to set up their homes, and pathfinders 
like Captain Fremont wished that California might be- 
143 


144 THE GOLDEN STATE 

come American. The Bear Flag was raised by a band of 
Americans at Sonoma; then in a little while the Stars 
and Stripes took its place and the place of the Mexican 
flag, and all California became truly American. 

Gold was discovered, and people began to flock to 
the new land of El Dorado from all over the world, though 
most of them were Americans. Never was there anything 
like it before. We can never forget the stories about gold 
mining, nor the exciting times in San Francisco during 
the days of ’49. 

“All aboard for California!” was the shout of men all 
through the Eastern states, eager to get to the land of 
gold. Thousands came across the plains in covered wag¬ 
ons, and thousands more took the long ocean voyage in 
clipper ships and in steamboats. California became one 
of the American states, and it was growing greater 
every year. Pioneers came in long trains of prairie 
schooners; others came around the Horn or across the 
Isthmus. Later there was the Overland Stage and the 
Pony Express. But people were not satisfied till the 
railroad was built and they could cross the country in a 
single week. And now the airplane flies swiftly from 
ocean to ocean. 

Growing in Greatness. — From the fertile soil Amer¬ 
icans raised huge crops of grain and fruit and vegetables, 
and also great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. So 
California was able to help feed the people of the whole 
nation. And all the time more and more people came, 
till Los Angeles and San Francisco became great world 
cities, many other fine cities and towns were built up, and 


WHAT MAKES CALIFORNIA GREAT? 145 

California became one of the richest of all the forty-eight 
states of the Union. 

Who is not proud of our Big Trees and lofty mountains, 
our rivers and beautiful lakes, our fields and our noble 
forests? Even the wild flowers and the birds and the 
animals add to the joy of living in sunny California. 
We love them all. 

The California Spirit. — But greater than the gifts of 
Nature are the lives and traits of the pioneer fathers and 
mothers. From them we have the true California spirit. 
This it is that gives us the deepest feelings of pride. And 
today it is the happy homes, the fine schools, and the 
lovely churches that add so much to our riches. Our 
boys and girls are our finest gold. 

Nature has been so kind to California, and so much 
has been done to provide us with the good things of life 
that we ought to love our state, obey the laws of the 
land, and try in every way to add to all that is good 
and true. Then each one of us can sing, “I love thee, 
California!” 




















































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PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 

(Marked as in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary) 


Adobe, d-d5'be 
Alhambra, al-ham'brd 
Anian, a-ne-an' 

Arroyo Seco, d-roi'd sa'co 
Auditorium, o'di-to'-n-dm 
Avalon, av'a-lon 
Aztecs, az'teks 
Balboa, bal-bo'a 
Bodega, bo-da'ga 
Cabrillo, ka-brel'yo 
Carreta, kar-ra'ta 
Cavalier, kav'-d-ler' 

Cavendish, kav'en-dfeh 
Cermenho, ser-men'yo 
Chico, che'ko 
Coloma, c5-l5'ma 
Colorado, kol'o-ra'do 
Corral, ko-ral' 

Cortes, kor'tes 
Coyote, ko-yo'ta 
De Neve, da na'-va 
Diablo, dya'blo 

El Camino Real, el ca-me'no 
ra-al' 

El Dorado, el do-ra'do 
El Capitan, el cap4 tan' 
Exposition, eks'po-zish'dn 
Eureka, u-re'kd 
Fandango, fan-daij'go 
Gillespie, gi-les'pi 


Hydraulic, hl-dro'-lik 
Ide, Id 

Imperial, lm-pe'ri-dl 
Irrigation, lr'i-ga'shdn 
Isthmus, is'mds 
Jedediah, jed'i-dl'd 
Junipero Serra, hoo-ne'pa- 
ser'ra 

Kearny, kar'm 
La Perouse, la pa-rdos' 

Los Angeles, los an'ha-las 
Magellan, md-jel'an 
Matanza, ma-tan'sa 
Mendocino, men'do-se'no 
Monterey, mon'te-ra' 

New Albion, nu al'bi-dn 
Observatory, ob-zur'vd-to-ri 
Panama, pan'd-ma' 

Pasadena, pas'd-de'nd 
Philippines, fil'i-pens 
Plaza, pla'zd 
Portola, por'to-la' 

Presidio, pra-se'dyo 
Pueblo, pweb'lo 
Ranchera, rdn-cha'ro 
Rancho, rdn'cho 
Reata, ra-a'ta 
Rincon, ren-kon' 

Rodeo, ro-da'o 
Sacramento, sak'rd-men'to 


148 


PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 


San Diego, san de-a'go 
San Fernando, fer-nan'd5 
San Gabriel, ga'bn-el 
San Joaquin, wa-ken' 

San Jose, ho-sa' 

San Luis Obispo, loo'is o-bis'po 
San Pedro, pe'drd 
Santa Barbara, san'ta bar'ba-ra 
Santa Catilina, kat'a le'na 
Santa Cruz, krboz 
Santa Monica, mon'i-ka 
Sarape, sa-ra'pa 
Sequoia, se-kwoi'a 
Shasta, shas'ta 


Sierra Nevada, si-er'd ne-va'da 
Sombrero, som-bra'ro 
Sonora, so-no'ra 
Tahoe, ta'ho 
Temescal, tem'es-cal' 

Tortilla, tor-tel'ya 
Tules, tob'les 
Vallejo, va-la'ho 
Vancouver, van-koo'ver 
Vaquero, va-ka'ro 
Vizcaino, veth'ka-e'no 
Wikiup, wik'i-up' 

Yerba Buena, yer'ba bwa'na 
Yosemite, yo-sem'i-te 












































































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